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NARRATIVE 



OF 



A RESIDENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



NARRATIVE 




OF 



A RESIDENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



BY THOMAS PRINGLE, 

LATE SECRETARY TO THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 



A NEW edition: 



TO WHICH 16 PREFIXED, 

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR, 
BY JOSIAH CONDER. 



LONDON: 
EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET. 

MDCCCXXEV. 



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FROM THE 

ANHRFW PRESTON PCAROOY 

FUND 



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LONDON : 

BRADBURT AND BVANS, PRINTERS, 

WHITEFRIARS. 



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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



«F 



THE AUTHOR. 



BY JOSIAH CONDER. 



The name of Thomas Pringle deserves to be held 
in affectionate remembrance as that of a benefactor, in 
more than one region of the globe. Without power, 
without wealth, his abilities were so well directed, and 
die providential circumstances of his life, harmonising 
with the purity of his views, afforded such wide scope 
for his modest, but efficient labours, that posterity will be 
largely his debtor. How few among the number of 
those who have devoted themselves to literary employ- 
ments, have lived for so good a purpose, and left behind 
so unsullied a name ! There was in Mr. Pringle^s whole 
course, a sort of dramatic propriety, which eminently 
marked its close : he died in the field of usefulness, at 
the moment that his specific work seemed to be done. 

The life of this estimable man was divided, by his 
successive residence in Scotland, South Africa, and 



VI LIFE OF THE AUTHOK. 

England, into three distinctly marked portions, all 
bearing upon each other, and tending to the same 
results. He was a native of Scotland, and his early- 
years were spent amid the pastoral and secluded scenery 
which he has described with so much true poetic feel- 
ing in his *^ Ephemerides," An unfinished letter, found 
among his papers, dated February, 1832, supplies some 
biographical details relating to his early days, which can- 
not be better given than in his own pleasing language : — 

" I was born on the 5th of January, 1789, at Blaiklaw,. 
(or Easterstead, as it was then usually called,) a farm- 
house about four miles south from Kelso, in the parish 
of Linton, Roxburghshire. The farm, consisting 
of about five hundred acres, of which one-half, or 
more, was wild moorland, belonged to the family of 
Wauchope, of Niddry. My grandfather had first be- 
come tenant of it in 1759, and my father succeeded ta 
a renewed lease of it, after his decease, in 1782. 

" Our family was originally from Selkirkshire, and, 
according to the tradition handed down by my grand- 
father, derived their lineage from the ancient house of 
Whytbank. All that I could make out from our family 
papers, however, when I took up * the antiquarian trade,' 
was, that my great-great grandfather was one William 
Pringle,who occupied the farm of Yair (now the residence 
of the Whytbank family,) as a * tenant ' under the laird, 
whose * cousin* or kinsman he is reported to have been ; 
and that he lived in an old tower, or peel, at the foot of 
the Craig-hill of Yair, on Tweed side. Some slight sort 
of intercourse appears also to have existed between my 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.* Vll 

grandfather and great-grandfather and the lairds of 
Why tbank ; but whether upon the footing of ancient 
consanguinity, I know not ; nor have I been able to 
trace out the relationship, in trying to * count kin,* * more 
majorum^^ with the present amiable family of Yair, with 
whom I became acquainted during my last visit to Scot- 
land. 

<' Be that as it may, (and the matter is of very little 
importance in our times,) my ancestors, for four genera- 
tions at least, had belonged to the class of plain, respect- 
able Scottish husbandmen, and all their near connections 
were of the same class, or of a Corresponding rank in 
society. My mother was the daughter of Thomas Haitlie, 
a farmer in Berwickshire; and of my grand&ther's seven 
sons, three were bred to farming, two were cabinet- 
makers, one became a clothier {Scotice merchant), and 
one (the Rev. Dr. Pringle, still alive) was educated for 
the Secession Cliurch, of which my grandfather was an 
Elder. 

^^ I was the third child of a family of four sons and 
three daughters, which my father had by his first mar- 
riage. It is said that I was a remarkably healthy infant ; 
but when I was only a few months old, I met with an 
accident in the nurse's arms, by which my right limb 
was dislocated at the hip-joint. The nurse, unfortu- 
nately, concealed the incident at the time ; and, though it 
was speedily discovered that something was wrong with 
the limb, and I was carried to Kelso for medical advice, 
the nature of the injury was not ascertained until a very 
considerable period had elapsed, and ijt was no longer 



Vm LIFE OF THE AUTHOR* 

practicable to reduce the dislocation. I was thus rendered 
lame for life. 

"My early reminiscences reach back to a period when 
I must have been about three years old, or little more. 
I remember of being carried to Kelso when about that 
age, and being tormented by doctors examining my 
limb, and making me wear a red morocco boot, with 
steel bandages to keep it in some prescribed position. 
These appliances were of no advantage, and were, ere 
long, superseded by a pair of crutches. The latter I 
soon learned to use with such ease and adroitness, that, 
during my boyhood and youth, (when I generally enjoyed 
robust health,) I felt but little incommoded by my lame- 
ness. Nanny Potts, the old nurse in whose hands the 
accident had happened to me, never forgave herself for 
being the unintentional cause of my misfortune, and, to 
make amends, indulged me, so far as she could, in every 
caprice. I consequently ruled her with despotic sway, 
and soon became suflSciently wayward and headstrong 
to require strict discipline on the part of my parents 
to prevent me from being quite spoiled. 

" When I was about five years of age, I accompanied 
my two eldest brothers, William and John, daily to 
school. We rode, all three, on one stout galloway, the 
foremost guiding our steed, and the other two holding 
fast each by the jacket of the one before him. We 
carried our noon-tide meal, consisting usually of a barley 
bannock and a bottle of milk, in a wallet; and my crutches 
were slung, one on each side, to the pommel of the long 
padded saddle (called sodds) on which we sat. The 
road—.'' 



J.IFE OF THE AUTHOR. IX 

Here the MS. breaks off. Had it been carried a little 
further, Mr. Pringle would have had to mention the loss 
of his mother, who died when he was about six years of 
age, and of whom he retained a most vivid remembrance. 
<^ His filial veneration seemed, indeed," says an intimate 
and early friend, ^^ to increase ^dth his distance from the 
time of his bereavement'" So late as 1812, he thus ex- 
presses himself in one of his letters : — ** I recollect her 
distinctly, and particularly all the circumstances con- 
nected with the last days of her life. How could I ever 
forget the last kind and solemn words, the farewell smile, 
the parting embrace of my mother — of such a mother !" 
He often spoke of her, and of the great kindness also of 
one of his aunts, who seems to have attempted to supply, 
in some degree, by her maternal care, the loss he had 
sustained. 

Notwithstanding his unfortunate lameness, the natural 
buoyancy of his spirit, rising superior to the depressing 
impediment, gave him, in early life, the character of a 
lively, active boy. He was fond of gardening, and 
showed much taste in the arrangement and cultivation 
of the flower-plots of which he took the charge in his 
father's garden, where, in an arbour constructed by his 
own hands, he passed many of his youthful hours. A 
small set of tools also furnished him with amusement; 
and his mechanical skill afterwards proved of essential 
benefit to himself and his friends in the solitary glens of 
Southern Africa. Books were, however, his favourite 
companions, and, amid the scenes of his youth, his 
rural seclusion afforded him a favourable opportunity for 
acquiring that stock of knowledge and reflection which 

a3 



X LIFE OF THE AUTHGR^ 

became the foundation of his future success in the varied 
walks of literature, and of his sodal usefulness. 

A village school, belonging to the parish of Moor- 
battle, was the one referred to in his own MS. fragment^ 
to which he daily repaired with his brothers. 

He was initiated into the rudiments of Latin in Kelso 
Grammar-School^ under the care of Mr. John Dymock^ 
afterwards one of the masters of the High School at 
Glasgow. He entered this school in the autumn of 1802, 
when he was in his fourteenth year. In November, 
1805, he was sent to Edinburgh to complete his studies, 
where he passed through the usual course of collegiate 
education. An honourable testimony is borne to his 
amiable and exemplary character at this period, by a 
class-mate, with whom he formed a close and lasting 
intimacy, their parents having arranged that they should 
lodge together in the same house. ^^ Among the remem- 
brances of the first evening we spent together,'' says 
this friend, now a respected clergyman of the Church of 
Scotland *, " it may deserve notice, that, on comparing 
our attainments in literature, he mentioned with peculiar 
delight, Park's * Travels' and Campbell's * Pleasures of 
Hope;' quoting that fine passage in the latter which 
ends with the line, 

*< And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell/' 

It must have seemed very unlikely, at that time, that 
a young man suffering from incurable lameness, should 



* The Rer. Robert Story, minister of Roseneath, Argyleshire. 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XI 

become a traveller ; but the congenial enthusiasm which 
the adventures of the African Traveller awakened in his 
mind) peculiarly fitted him for assisting in laying the 
foundations of a new colony in the wilds of Southern 
Africa; while^ in his admiration of CampbelPs verse, may 
be traced the germinating love of freedom and abhorrence 
of oppression, which became the ruling passion and 
determining motive of his future life. 

" My first impressions of his mind and heart,*" con- 
tinues this same friend, " were deepened by every 
opportunity I had during a long friendship and confi- 
dential intercourse with him. His warmth of affection, 
his ingenuousness, and his integrity were, at the very 
commencement of our fellowship, as truly revealed to 
me in his sayings and doings, as if I had known him for 
years. There was such a reality in the beautiful morale 
of his nature, that conveyed to you at once the impres- 
sion of his being worthy of confidence and love. When 
at college, he was of studious habits, and attended dili- 
gently to the duties of his different classes ; and although 
he did not make a brilliant figure, his appearance was 
already respectable, when examined by the Professor. 
He did not, however, although studious, extend, as he 
might have done, his classical knowledge. His readings 
during the hours not engaged in the preparation of the 
lessons of the day, consisted chiefly in the belles lettres 
of -his mother tongue. He was much more conversant 
wkh English poetry and criticism at the time, than 
students of his standing generally were; and he had 
not been many months in town (Edinburgh), before he 
assisted in organising a small weekly club, where his 



Xii LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



general attainments were available, either in himself 
producing, or in criticising, an essay in prose or in 
verse, written by the members in turn. His habits were 
exceedingly correct, as his thoughts and feelings were 
most pure; while, amid the trials of an academic life, his 
devotional bias lost little of its power. During the 
whole session, alternately with his companion, he con- 
ducted worship in his apartment, after the fashion of 
devout Scottish families; thus reverently observing the 
practice of his fathers. On Sundays, he generally 
attended public worship in the meeting-house of Dr, 
M * Crie, the well - known biographer of Knox and 
Melville. The session closed, he returned, with an 
increased admiration and love, to the scene of his 
nativity. I never knew any one who had a more 
intense delight in looking at nature. He seemed to 
find a life and loveliness in every thing, — to have a 
capacity of sympathy with all the varieties of beauty 
and grandeur. Although lame, he had a passion for 
ascending hills. The top of Hounam-law was to him 
especially consecrated ground, from which he could 
command such prospects of the traditionary country, of 
the legends of which he was now acquiring rapidly the 
knowledge. He reluctantly left the country for the 
succeeding term, during which his habits were but 
Jittle changed. To the country again returning, he 
made many a pilgrimage to classical spots in Teviot 
Dale. One of these, to St. Mary's Loch, in which I 
accompanied him, formed the subject of a poem after- 
wards published in the Poetic Mirror, under the title of 
• The Autumnal Excursion/ 



• •• 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XUl 

^^ As he advanced in his studies, he had great difficulty 
in fixing on any profession. His lameness interposed 
obstacles to some ; his tastes and habits to others. In 
this state of indecision, it may be easily supposed, his 
studies, having no definite object in view, became rather 
desultory; and there can be no question that, at this 
period, occurred the great practical error of his life, the 
rejection of the claims of each profession, and a too great 
confidence in the profitableness of literary employment 
of some kind or other.'' 

In February, 1808, Mr. Pringle was engaged by 
Mr. Thompson, deputy registrar, as a clerk in the 
service of His Majesty's Commissioners on the Public 
Records of Scotland. His employment was to assist, 
for so many hours a day, in transcribing the old records. 
** Such an employment," continues his friend, the Rev. 
Mr. Story, " unless when it occasionally gratified his anti- 
quarian taste, was most repugnant to the natural bias of 
his mind, and altogether alien from those studies and 
mental exercises in which he especially delighted. He 
had, however, an ardent and enthusiastic temperament; 
and although often bodily exhaustion, after the daily 
labour of transcription, seemed to incapacitate him for 
every literary pursuit and enjoyment, he would, after 
a little interval of repose, with all the freshness of early 
morn, commence his reading or writing in prose or 
verse ; and it was astonishing how the fruit would, from 
time to time, appear, in the various knowledge and 
information he would cast into the circulation of every 
literary party. 

'^ The character of his daily occupation for several 



Xir LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

years, — his passionate love of nature and rural scenery, 
which he could but seldom gratify, — the dreamy ten- 
dency of his fancy, — the wanderings of his soul amid 
happier combinations of things, — may account for those 
feelings of a sombre description, to which, during this 
period, he was occasionally subject The entire uncer- 
tainty of his future prospects, — the difficulty of fixing 
on any plan of life, from his unprofessional status, — the 
perils of a merely literary life, — the difficulties under 
which others were labouring, in whom he took a deep 
interest, — all conspired to render more frequent the 
attacks of depression alluded to. Notwithstanding all 
this, his private letters at this period are never without 
tokens of great buoyancy of spirit; and, after melan- 
choly details, some lively stroke of wit or playful 
humour would at once originate an entirely different 
train of emotions." 

To how many a young man, of cultivated mind and 
ardent feelings, the practical mistake of em.barking in 
life as a literary adventurer, without the insurance of a 
profession, has proved fatal ! Every year, the metro- 
polis is receiving and engulfing a redundant supply of 
literary talent, for which there is no demand, except 
in the available shape of professional skill, or some 
definite employment Every profession, indeed, is now 
crowded with competitors for the slow fruits of intel- 
lectual labour and application ; but, if the high-way to 
competence and distinction presents such obstacles to 
advancement, there is all the less chance of succeeding 
by the indirect paths of desultory and unprofessional 
employment. The profits of a trade or profession, 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XV 

however small, are cheaply earned and certain, in com- 
parison with the precarious wages of literary labour. 

In the beginning of 1817, Mr. Pringle undertook, in 
conjunction with Mr. James Cleghorn, the editorship 
of a new periodical publication, the Edinburgh Monthly 
Magazine; which, subsequently, falling into other 
hands, assumed the title of Blackwood^s Magazine*. It 
will not be thought to detract any thing from Mr. 
Pringle^s merit or virtue, that he was deemed an unfit 
instrument for converting a literary periodical into a 
vehicle of political satire and party animosity f. In 
October of the same year, he transferred his services, 
as joint-editor, to Constable's Edinburgh Magazine; 
and he thus became involved in a literary warfare, very 
uncongenial to his disposition. 

It was during this to him eventful year, that Mr. 
Pringle ventured upon a step which, while it increased 
his responsibilities and difficulties at the time, was a 
source of permanent happiness. On the 19th of July, 
1817, he married Margaret Brown, daughter of the 
late William Brown, farmer in Papple, East Lothian. 

* For some time before and after liis engagement with Blackwood, 
Mr. Pringle edited tlie Star Newspaper, then almost the only liberal 
paper in Scotland. 

t ** The causes which led to the dispute with Blackwood,'' says a 
friend, well acquainted with aU the circumstances, ** are now of little 
consequence ; though I may mention, that if Mr. Pringle would have 
consented to shake off his friend, Mr. Cleghorn, he might have ob- 
tained the sole editorship of the magazine, on much more favourable 
terms as to pecuniary remuneration. A proposal to this effect was 
indignantly rejected ; and hence the torrent of abuse by which he was 
assailed by his less scrupulous successors in the management of the 
work." 



XVI LIFE OF THE AUT^OR• 

<< Amid all my difficulties and harassing toil since my 
marriage,'^ he says to an intimate friend, in the last 
letter he wrote before sailing for the Cape, after having 
experienced, amid various trials, the devoted love of 
her on whom he had fixed his affections, ^^ I have 
never, for a single moment, had reason to repent of 
my decision.'' In addition to the anxiety which the 
uncertainty of his own prospects might have awakened, 
the circumstances of his father^s family, to which he 
alludes in his African Sketches, weighed upon his mind, 
and led him to form, at length, the resolution to embark 
his own fortunes, with those of his relatives, in the Go- 
vernment scheme of South African Colonization. He 
had been a most affectionate son and brother, as he 
now proved a most tender husband ; and he had long 
strained every nerve to be of some benefit to his rela- 
tives. No means, however, of re-establishing them in 
rural independence presented itself, but emigration ; and 
the Government scheme held out advantages, of which 
Mr, Pringle thought it so advisable for them to avail 
themselves, that he offered to accompany them, should 
they determine to proceed to the Cape. In the letter 
above mentioned, in which he refers to his marriage, 
after enumerating several reasons that had influenced 
his determination to go out to South Africa, he adds : 
" It affords me, moreover, the consolatory prospect of 
re-uniting my father*s family, which fortune has so 
widely dispersed, into one circle and society, in my 
own immediate neighbourhood.^^ As to his personal 
views and prospects, he tells us himself^ that his literary 
drudgery was little to his taste. " My connexion with 



JLIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XVU 

the journals,^ (Blackwood and Constable's,) he says, 
^^ had been prejudicial, rather than otherwise, to my 
views in life, and had given me, moreover, a decided 
aversion to literature, or, at least, to periodical literature, 
as a profession." His heart, to use the words of a friend, 
was constantly wandering away from the ^^ din and 
smithery'' of the literary workshop, to 

*^ The scented heath, the sheafy vale. 
The hills and streams of Teviot dale.'* 

His love of the country was not a sentiment of the 
fancy, but a craving of the heart after the native element 
of his tastes and affections ; and, though one of the most 
social of human beings, the free desert, where 

** Man is distant, bnt God is near/' 

seems to have been more congenial to his spirit, than the 
sickening warfare of envious competition and mercenary 
rivalry connected with a literary life. 

In the beginning of 1819, Mr. Pringle first ap- 
peared before the public by name, as the author of a 
small volume of poetry, under the title of " The Au- 
tumnal Excursion, and other Poems.^' The scene of 
the excursion is laid in the pastoral dale which was the 
home of the author^s heart and fancy, and which has 
become celebrated as the very cradle of Scottish song. 
Of the Miscellaneous Pieces, the greater part were early 
productions, composed amid the scenes they describe, 
to amuse the summer solitude of college vacations. 
Warmth and delicacy of feeling, a correct taste, and 
the genuine enthusiasm of a lover of nature, characterise 



XYlll LIFE OF THE AUTHOB. 

this pleasing, unpretending volume; but, had not its 
author been spared to establish his reputation by the 
riper fruits of his genius and the more important labours 
of his after-life, his name would not long have been 
preserved by the fugitive document which contained his 
claim to a poet's immortality. 

After maturely weighing the advantages which the 
Cape seemed to offer, as compared with other British 
colonies, Mr. Pringle's friends made their election, and 
empowered him to apply on their behalf to the Colonial 
department The little band of emigrants, of which he 
thus found himself constituted pro tempore the head and 
leader, was composed of twelve men (including three 
farm servants), six women, and six children. As he was 
not fitted to become an agricultural settler, what he 
proposed to himself was, to obtain some moderate 
appointment in the civil service of the colony, and 
probably in the newly-settled district ; and through the 
kind intervention of his respected friend. Sir Walter 
Scott, he was furnished with a letter of recommendation 
from Mr. Goulburn, then Colonial Secretary, to the 
Governor of the colony, which seemed to warrant the 
modest expectations he cherished. Little did Mr. J^ringle 
anticipate that he was about to commit himself to an 
unequal contest with a Governor in whose eyes the 
establishment of a free press was a crime, and a sus- 
pected leaning to liberal sentiments an offence inexpiable, 
sufficient to entail ruin upon the unconscious offender. 
Had he known the character of the man to whose 
arbitrary and venal sway the colony was at that time 
unhappily consigned, he would probably never have 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. JOX 

set Ilis foot upon the shores of the Cape. But it is well 
for South Africa, and it was well, upon the whole, for 
himself, that he was not in possession of the knowledge 
that might have deterred him from the adventure. His 
object in going out was, as respects his family, realized ; 
and he returned to fill a more important and influential 
post than any to which he could have aspired in the 
colony. 

In November, 1819, Mr. Pringle, having resigned his 
literary engagements, proceeded to London, to make 
arrangements for the emigration of the little band of 
settlers. The vessel in which they embarked sailed in 
February following, and anchored in Simon^s Bay on 
the last day of ApriL On the twenty-ninth day of June, 
they reached their appointed location at Bavian's River, 
which has since received the name of Glen Lynden. 
For two years Mr. Pringle was peacefully occupied in 
laying the foundations of the new settlement, the early 
history of which he has narrated with so much vivacity 
and graphic effect in his African Sketches. In September, 
1822, he removed to Cape Town, having been appointed 
librarian of the Government library. As regards emolu- 
ment, the appointment was a very humble one, and not 
at all adequate to the support of a family in so expensive 
a place as Cape Town, being only about 75?. sterling. 
But the duties were well adapted to his tastes and habits; 
and he was encouraged to hope that, by means of the 
press, he might be enabled to realize a competent 
income, and at the same time to benefit his fellow- 
colonists by the diffusion of useful information. In 1823, 
Mr. Pringle opened, in conjunction with Mf* John 



XX LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

Fairbairn, a private academy in Cape Town; and in 
March, 1824*, he commenced a literary journal, with the 
same friend as a coadjutor. The two friends also under* 
took the literary management of a weekly newspaper, re- 
cently established by Mr. Greig, a printer from England. 
For a few months, everything went on most prosperously; 
but the utmost prudence could not avert the storm which 
was brewing in the horizon, and which at length suddenly 
^^ burst forth like a long-gathered south-easter from 
Table Mountain." The Governor's power was absolute, 
and his resentment ruin. When he found himself unable 
either to intimidate or to cajole the men whom he had 
so wantonly injured by his arbitrary proceedings, he 
resolved to crush them totally. Mr. Pringle could not 
do otherwise than resign his Government appointment; 
and even the academy, being denounced by Lord Charles 
Somerset as a seminary of sedition, rapidly declined. 
^' Ruined in circumstances and in prospects, but sound 
in conscience and character,'' Mr. Pringle began to 
prepare seriously for returning to England; prior to 
which he resolved on an excursion to the eastern frontier, 
to see once more his relatives at Glen Lynden. There 
he had the pure satisfaction of finding the little colony 
he had assisted in planting, in tolerably prosperous 
circumstances. " Under the blessing of Providence^" 
he says, " its prosperity has been steadily progressive. 
The friends whom I left there, though they have not 
escaped some occasional trials and disappointments^ such 
as all men are exposed to in this uncertain world, have 
yet enjoyed a goodly share of health, competence, and 
peace." Out of the twenty*three souls who had accom- 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XXI 

panied him to Glen LyndeD, he records^ fourteen years 
after, that there had occurred only a single death, and 
that was owing to the accidental bursting of a gun ; while 
by births alone, exclusive of new settlers who had joined 
them, they had more than doubled their number. *^ On 
the whole,'' piously remarks Mr. Pringle, in concluding 
his interesting narrative, ^^ I have great cause to bless 
God, both as regards the prosperity of my father's house, 
and in many respects as regards my own career in life, 
that His good providence directed our emigrant course 
fourteen years ago to the wilds of Southern Africa *.'* 

Having at length decided upon coming to this country, 
Mr. Pringle once more returned to Cape Town, where 
he had some very satisfactory interviews with the Com- 
missioners of Inquiry and with General Bourke, who 
had happily succeeded to Lord Charles Somerset in the 
Government of the colony. Among other inducements 
which influenced his decision, was a literary engagement, 
upon which he relied as a temporary resource, and which 
would have required his personal superintendence of the 
printing of the work in this country. Through circum- 
stances which were never satisfactorily explained, he 
was disappointed of this primary object of his return. 
The materials of the work he had been engaged to 
edit, were, after an inexplicable delay, confided to other 
and incompetent hands, and recently appeared in a shape 
very different from that which they would have assumed 
under his revision. 

On the 16th of April, 1826, Mr. Pringle embarked, 

* African Sketches, p. 356. This was written in 1834. 



XXU LIF£ OF THE AUTHOR. 

with his wife and her sister, for England^ and arrived in 
London on the 'Tth of July. He had lost, he tells us, 
about a thousand pounds at the Cape, through the per- 
secution he had sustained from Lord Charles Somerset ; 
and he hoped to obtain from the justice of the Govern- 
ment, before whom his claims had been laid, some 
compensation or indemnity; but of this hope he was 
disappointed. In answer to his application to Earl 
Bathurst, he received an official intimation, that his 
having left the Cape, placed it out of his Lordship's 
power to assist his views in the manner that might have 
been done had he remained in the colony. Mr. Pringle 
contemplated, it is believed, only a temporary sojourn 
in this country; and could he have obtained, what 
indeed his heart was set upon, a Government appoint- 
ment as a civil agent or resident on the Caffer border, 
(agreeably to the plan recommended by the Commis- 
sioners of Inquiry with a view to establish a more 
equitable frontier system,) the highest object of his 
ambition would have been obtained, and the benefit to 
the colony of such an arrangement would have been 
incalculable. 

Other work, however, had been provided for him in 
this country. In March, 1827 *, his character and 
qualifications having become known to the Committee 
of the Anti-Slavery Society, " they felt themselves 
fortunate," to use their own words, " in being able to 

* Mr. Pringle had written an article on slavery, which appeared in 
the New Monthly Magazine, then edited by Thomas CampbeU, Esq. 
This article attracted the notice of some of the leading members of the 
Anti-Slavery Society, and led to inquiries after the writer, which issued 
in their making to Mr. Pringle an offer of the office he was so weU 
fitted to filL 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XXlii 

engage him as their secretary ; and in that capacity, for 
upwards of seven years, he continued to labour with 
s^nal assiduity and devotedness, until the object of 
their association was gained by the legislative extinction 
of colonial slavery. To this consummation Mr. Pringle 
greatly contributed, by his practical knowledge of the 
evils of that iniquitous system, and by the unwearied 
exertion of his talents in the service of tlie Society*." 
No situation could have been more admirably adapted 
to the qualifications, sentiments, and entire character of 
the individual thus providentially designated, as it were, 
for the office. Of the objects for which he had returned 
to this country, he had been cruelly disappointed; he 
was cast upon his resources without any certain provision; 
but the honourable post which awaited him here, though 
not a lucrative appointment, not only indemnified him 
for the loss of the literary engagement upon which he 
had relied, but seemed an appropriate reward of his 
struggle against oppression in a colony doubly cursed at 
that time with political misrule and the evils of slavery. 
What he had witnessed and suffered in South Africa 
must have served only to strengthen his native love of 
freedom, and to deepen his abhorrence of that atrocious 
system against which he was now called upon to aid in 
direct warfare. 

The greater part of Mr. Pringle's time was constantly 
demanded by the occupations connected with his office ; 
and the various literary tasks which he contrived to exe- 
cute, were chiefly accomplished in the hours stolen from 

'^ • These expressions are taken from a circular letter, drawn up, we 
betieve, by Zachariah Macaulay, Esq., in the name of the Committee, 
in which Mr. Pringle is acknowledged to have been *'' for years one of 
the most meritorious, e£Gicient, and disinterested of their fellow-labourers/* 



XXIV LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

sleep or needful relaxation, frequently to the serious pre* 
judice of his health. Besides occasional contributions 
to different periodicals, he edited for several years the 
^* Friendship's Offering," one of the most popular of the 
Annuals. He also edited the memoirs of his venerated 
friend, the late Dr. Alexander Waugh, by Dr. Belfrage 
and Mr. Hay, who acknowledge, in the preface, their 
obligations to his literary aid in carrying the volume 
through the press. He supplied some valuable materials 
for the notes to Mr. Thompson's Travels in South Africa; 
and his friend, the Rev. Dr. Philip, also drew largely 
his services in preparing his History of the Cape Colony, 
These form but an imperfect list of his useful, but unob- 
trusive literary labours, in addition to the publications 
which bear and will serve to transmit his name. 

It only remains to give an account of the circumstances 
which shed the prophetic brightness of a golden sunset 
upon his last days. 

On the 27th of June, Mr. Pringle attended the office 
of the Anti-Slavery Society, we believe for the last time, 
for the purpose of issuing a circular address relating to the 
celebration of the approaching first of August, the day 
which was to crown the labours of that Society and of the 
friends to the oppressed negroes in our colonies. He re- 
turned to his home, at Highgate, in the evening, fatigued, 
but not apparently out of health. In taking some refresh* 
ment, however, a crumb of bread seemed, as he expressed 
it, to " go down his wrong throat." It induced a violent 
fit of coughing, and the effort ruptured a small vessel in 
the lungs ; but, as the bleeding soon ceased, he did not 
deem it necessary to send for his medical attendant till 
the morning. No other symptom indicating a constitu* 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. ZZV 

tional tendency to disease was at this time to be detected; 
but, as copious spitting of blood continued to recur at 
intervals during several days, grounds of suspicion were 
afforded, that organic disease in the lungs had com- 
menced. This serious view of the case was confirmed 
by the fact, that, although the haemorrhage was perma- 
nently checked in less than a fortnight, the patient soon 
afterwards began to lose flesh and strength, and to exhibit, 
in a frequent cough and other symptoms, the too sure 
presage of the fatal disease. 

While some uncertainty, however, still hung over 
the true character of the symptoms, Mr. Pringle con- 
tinued to apply laboriously to his official duties and other 
engagements ; nor could the entreaties of his friends for 
a time succeed in detaching him from a course of appli- 
cation to which he was obviously unequal, and under 
which he was beginning to sink. With these labours, 
however, he conjoined a closer perusal than ever of the 
Holy Scriptures, which always lay on his table, and 
a visible air of calm and stedfast seriousness pervaded 
his demeanour. ^^ There was nothing," says the esti- 
mable minister who attended him throughout his illness*, 
<^ that would indicate confusion or perplexity, as on the 
part of one who had been surprised by a dreaded enemy. 
His state of mind seemed rather to resemble the still, 
steady step of the soldier on the eve of battle, taking his * 
place where he knows not whether he is to live or die, 
but confident in his leader^s skilful arrangement, and 



* The Rev. John M'Donald, minister of the Scottish Church at 
Islington^ and an old friend of Mr. Pringle's. 

C 



XXVI LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

prepared, in his own allotted station of duty, alike for 
either issue." He manifested an increased delight in 
religious converse and social prayer, under the evident 
impression of the precarious tenure of his life. 

At length it was announced to him, by the voice of 
skill and friendship, that his only chance of recovery 
rested upon his removal, before winter, to a warmer 
climate ; and many circumstances conspired to render a 
voyage to the Cape, the most eligible, or, at least, the 
most practicable plan. He had indeed contemplated 
returning to South Africa, but under other circumstances; 
and several of his influential friends connected with the 
Anti-Slavery Society had, previously to his4Uness, been 
endeavouring to procure for him a Government appoint- 
ment in the colony*. The state of his health now 
rendered it necessary that no time should be lost ; and 
although the announcement of his medical adviser, which 
indicated the very unfavourable opinion formed of his 



* In a memorial drawn up by Mr. Pringle himself, in order to be 
submitted to a member of his Majesty's Government, dated November 30, 
1831, he thus explains his modest views and reasonable expectations: 
'* If I could procure some public employment in London, which would 
admit of my devoting a portion of my time to the service of the cause of 
humanity, in which I consider myself solemnly enlisted for life^ I would, 
of course, prefer remaining at home. But if that cannot be obtained in 
England, I am willing to return again to South Africa, which, next to 
my native country, has the strongest claims upon me both of duty and 
affection. If an appointment could be found for me in that colony, in 
connexion with the measures adopted by Government for the protection 
of the slaves or the improvement and civilisation of the native races, 
I should have the satisfaction of finding myself still engaged in the 
same honourable service in which my late years have been spent, and 
also in a department of it for which my former experience in that colony 
has perhaps best of all fitted me.'' 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XXVli 



case, was startling and trying to his feelings, his spirits 
revived at the idea that, should his health be restored, 
the country to which the finger of Providence seemed 
now to point his steps, might become the scene of hb 
future exertions. An early departure was strongly 
recommended by Dr. James Clark, who had been called 
in, and to whose kind and generous attention Mr. Pringic 
felt himself much indebted. But serious obstacles 
opposed the execution of the plan. For some time these 
difficulties pressed very painfully upon his mind, and 
put his trust in Divine Providence to a severe test But 
neither his faith nor his patience failed. He was enabled 
to cast his cares upon Him who careth for us ; and at 
length, the obstacles which had occasioned the delay in 
making his arrangements for sailing were removed by 
the assistance of some generous friends. 

On the 17th of October, the writer of these pages 
received a note from him in these terms : — " My Dear 
Friend, — Pray come and see me before I go back to 
Africa. We expect to embark on the S5th instant, or 
within a day or two subsequently. Yours ever truly, 
Thomas Pringle." On obeying the affectionate sum- 
mons, I found that the day of sailing had been postponed . 
and it is remarkable, that it was again and again put off, 
till, when the time actually arrived for going on board, 
Mr. Pringle was no longer in a state which admitted of 
his being moved. Not having before seen him since his 
illness, I was painfully struck with the change in his 
appearance, and with the too unequivocal indications of 
his fatal malady; but the melancholy impression was 
softened and relieved by finding him in that state of 

c2 



XXVlll LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 

" perfect peace" which can be known only by one whose 
mind is ^^ stayed upon God." There was an indescribable 
serenity in his aspect, a tranquillity and repose in his 
manner, which harmonised with his brief but emphatic 
expressions of filial acquiescence and confidence in the 
Divine disposal. I took my leave of him with the solemn 
feeling that our next interview would be in a better 
world. At his request, I sent him a few religious 
volumes, accompanied with a farewell letter, to which 
no answer was expected. He replied with all the 
warmth of his heart, and the following extract will shew 
the state of his feelings : — 

" October 24tji Your kind, consolatory 

letter has done me good. It is, indeed, my earnest wish 
and prayer, to be enabled to cast all my burthen on the 
Lord ; to trust Him for all in time, as I desire to trust 
Him for all in eternity. At this moment I really feel 
no anxiety about the future. I feel a strong confidence 
that * the Lord will provide.' If it please him to restore 
me to health, I have no doubt that, even by writing 
books and literary articles sent to London, I might be 
able to realise enough for subsistence in that cheap 
country. We could live most comfortably on lOOl. a 
year, ...... We have just received the unpleasant 

information that our vessel will not sail before the 31st, 
and may be several days later. There is no remedy 

but patience Whether we meet again in this 

world or not, believe me your sincere and affectionate 
friend, who hopes to meet you in a better. 

" Thomas Pringle." 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR XXIX 

Not many days after this was written, he was seized 
with severe diarrhoea. The occurrence of this symptom, 
in connexion with the bad state of his general health, 
now rendered it imperative on his medical attendants to 
advise him to give up all idea of going on board. At 
the risk, therefore, of losing a part of the passage- 
money* which had been advanced as a deposit, the 
thought of the voyage to the Cape was abandoned. 
He had now only to await the appointed moment of 
his change. A slight and temporary mitigation of 
the symptoms at times occurred ; but it was only the 
flickering of the taper before its extinction. As he 
rapidly sank under the last stage of his disease, his mind 
seemed to gather strength, and to anticipate its freedom 
from the body. " There appeared,^* says Mr. McDonald, 
in a letter detailing the circumstances of his last days, 
" a rapid and surprising expansion and development of 
what had formerly been in some degree checked and 
weighed down by natural reserve and the pressure of 
the world. He now declared himself wholly weaned 
and detached from all concern or affection for the things 
of this life. He delighted much in shewing forth the 
great mercy of God to him, an unworthy sinner, and in 
tracing the Divine wisdom and goodness in the several 
successive steps of his late afflictions, designed, as he 
felt they were, for humbling and sanctifying him before 
leaving this sinful world. As he himself expressed it, 
the last prop of his earthly expectations was thrust from 



* This deposit was afterwards returned in the most considerate and 
handsome manner by the ship-owners, Messrs. Forbes, Inglis, & Co. 



XXX LIFE OF THE AUTHOR* 

under his feet, by a hand as unerring as kind and 
fiuthful, that he might lean wholly on his Saviour. 
Of his own labours and exertions in the cause of 
mercy and benevolence, he breathed not a syllable ; he 
renounced the very thought of them in the prospect of 
eternity ; his sole hope rested on the mediation of his 
God and Saviour, Jesus Christ He desired to be prayed 
for < as a sinful creature, hoping to be saved only through 
the grace of a divine Redeemer.' 

<^ His mental activity triumphed over the combined 
effects of disease and medicine, even to the last day of 
his earthly existence *. Until the day before, he con- 
tinued to exert himself in writing letters to different 
relatives and Christian friends in various parts of the 
world, some of which shewed that spiritual strength may 
outlast even intellectual vigour. At length * the silver 
cord was loosed.' On the evening of Friday, Dec. 5, he 
gently passed out of life ; and the friend who held the 



* Mr. Kennedy, his medical attendant, gives a similar account of 
Mr. Pringle's last days. '^ It is not/' he says, in a letter with which 
he favoured me, " without even some degree of pleasure that I recur to 
the period that immediately preceded his departure from this life. He 
seemed to have lived and laboured more for the happiness of others 
than his own, and his enjoyments seemed to commence when those of per- 
sons who pursue an opposite course appear to terminate* Although made 
quite aware of the near approach of death, many days before it took 
place, he retained to his latest hours the greatest cheerfulness and 
resignation ; his characteristic firmness never for a moment deserted 
him. In a conversation which I had with him at this time, he spoke 
freely of the coming event, as if it had been an ordinary topic, ascribing 
his happy state of mind, not to any thing that he had himself per- 
formed, but to his religious conviction and hope, based on the doctrine 
of the atonement.*' 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXl 

hand that was stretched out to bid him farewell in the 
approach of death, felt nothing but the passive throb of 
the frame from which the spirit had already disengaged 
itself, to return to its Father and Redeemer. Thus 
peacefully, and in the faith of Christ, died this devoted 
and unwearied friend of the slave and the oppressed ; 
one who consecrated his talents to the cause of mercy, 
because he had obtained mercy. His was no mercenary, 
though an official advocacy of the rights of the African 
race. His heart dictated his acceptance of a post which 
his circumstances rendered a needful provision." No gold 
could have purchased his labours in a cause which his 
conscience disapproved. He lived for others, and he 
died poor, yet having contributed to ^'make many rich;" 
" having,'* in this world, " nothing, and yet possessing 
all things." 

His remains were interred in Bunhill Fields, ground 
consecrated by the remains of the great and good, which 
have during ages accumulated in that wilderness of 
tombs, where a simple stone bears the following just 
and elegant tribute to his memory : — 



XXJLll 



^tteb to tfie innnoTB 

OF 

THOMAS PRINGLE, 

AN HUMBLE DISCIPLE OF CHRIST, 

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 5tH DAT OF DECEMBER, 1834, 

IN THE 46th TEAR OF HIS AGE, 

IN THE WALKS OF BRITISH LITERATURE HE WAS KNOWN 

AS A MAN OF OENIUS .' 

IN THE DOMESTIC CIRCLE HE WAS LOVED 
AS AN AFFECTIONATE RELATIVE AND FAITHFUL FRIEND: 

IN THE WIDE SPHERE OF HUMANITT HE WAS REVERED 
AS THE ADVOCATE AND PROTECTOR OF THE OPPRESSED *. 

HE LEFT AMONG THE CHILDREN OF THE AFRICAN DESERT 
A MEMORIAL OF HIS PHILANTHROPT ; 

AND BEQUEATHED TO HIS FELLOW-COUNTRTMEN 
AN EXAMPLE OF ENDURING VIRTUE. 

HAVING LIVED TO WITNESS THE CAUSE IN WHICH HE 
HAD ARDENTLY AND ENERGETICALLY LABOURED, TRIUMPH IN THE 

EMANCIPATION OF THE NEGRO, 

HK WAS HIMSELF CALLED FROM THE BONDAGE OF THIS WORLD 

TO THE ENJOYMENT OF ETERNAL LIBERTY, 

THROUGH THE MERITS OF HIS REDEEMER. 



LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXUl 

The last literary work upon which Mr. Pringle was 
engaged, was the revision of his " African Sketches, ** 
with a view to a new edition ; and he finished it only a 
short time before his hand was arrested by sickness. The 
volume, in its present form, may be regarded, therefore, 
as posthumous ; and it is the only legacy which he was 
able to bequeath, except his name, his virtues, and those 
remembrances which are the pledges of re-union, to his 
afflicted widow, now, with her sister, left alone in this, 
to them, almost foreign land *. 

" Few men," it has been remarked by a contemporary 
journalist f, " were richer in friends than Mr. Pringle. 
Among them might be enumerated most of the literary 
men of the day," as well as those eminent philanthropists 
with whom his official engagement brought him latterly 
into immediate connection and intercourse. " Although 
he discharged, during many years, with a fearless and 
honest zeal, the duties of an office which exposed him to 
the bitterness of party spirit, no man, perhaps, ever had 
fewer enemies, or descended into the grave with fewer 
animosities." 

In South Africa his death will be deeply mourned, 
not only by the Missionaries of all denominations, to 
whom he was endeared by the lively interest which he 
took in their labours, as well as the ties of personal 
friendship ; not only by his colleagues and fellow- 
labourers in the cause of humanity, but by the thou- 



• Mr. Pringle*8 relations are aU now settled in South Africa ; and 
Mrs. Pringle' s family emigrated some years ago to Canada. 

•)• Atheneeum. 



XXXI V LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, 

sands of the Caffre and Hottentot races, who looked to 
him as a protector and benefactor. 

It is pleasing to dwell upon the mild lustre of such 
a character ; and unspeakably delightful to reflect upon 
the society of the perfected spirits with which he is now 
numbered, and whither we are invited to follow. 



PREFACE. 



In offering to the Public a second edition of this little 
work, it may be proper to notice that the first edition 
bore the general title of " A&ican Sketches," consisting 
of two unequal divisions of Poetry and Prose. 



The Author has now withdrawn the section of Verse 
altogether from the volume, partly from the conviction 
that the prose narrative forms without it a whole suffi- 
ciently complete, and partly with the view of re- 
producing the poetical sketches at some future period, 
in a separate shape, and with such additions as he hopes 
may render the collection less unworthy of public 
favour. 



XXXvi PREFACE. 

The omission of a few passages and notes, exclusively 
of colonial and temporary interest, is the only point in 
which the Narrative has undergone any alteration. 



The expediency of a change of title in the present 
edition is too obvious to require remark. 

T, P. 

London, 
November \2, 1834. 



TO 

ROBERT PRINGLE, 

OLBN-LYNDBIf, SOUTH AFRICA. 



MY FATHER ! I TO THEE INSCRIBE THIS PAGE ; 
AND SEND IT FREIGHTED, LIKE A CODRIER-DOTR^ 
WITH MANY A PRAYER OF REVERENTIAL LOVE, 
TO GREET THEE IN THY DISTANT HERMITAGE. 
IF SUCH SLIGHT THEMES MAY FOR AN HOUR ENGAGE 
THY THOUGHTS, INTENT ON BETTER THINGS ABO\'B, 
THIS TALE OF TRIALS PAST PERCHANCE MAY PROVE 
A RECREATION TO THINE HONOURED AGE. 

SPRUNG FROM A STALWART LINE OF SCOTTISH SIRES, 

BE THOU THE PATRIARCH ON AFRIC^S STRAND 

OF A YOUNG RACE, WHO WITH THEIR FATHERS* FIRES 

SHALL WARM THE HEART OF THEIR ADOPTED LAND ; 

WHO, FIRM YET GENTLE, GENEROUS, SINCERE, 

SHALL FEAR THEIR QOD, AND KNOW NO OTHER FEAR. 

January 5, 1834. 



NARRATIVE OF A RESIDENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 

Ipse, ignotus, egens, Libyae deserta peragro — 
— Non no8 aut fcrro Libycos populare penatos 
Venimns, aut raptas ad litora yertcre pnedas. 

TiRG. JEneid. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Government Scheme of Emigration to South Africa in 1819 — Arrival 
of the Author with a Party of Settlers in Simon's Bay — ^Visit to 
Cape Town — Author's Views in Emigrating — ^Voyage round the 
Coast to Algoa Bay-^Disembarkation of Emigrants — Settlers' 
Camp — Excursion to Bethelsdorp — Caffer Captive — Hottentot 
Congregation — Sanguine Expectations of the Emigrants — Remark- 
able fate of two religious Polemics — Interview with the Acting 
Governor — Destination of the Scotch Party — Foundation of the 
Town of Port Elizabeth .... 1—21 



CHAPTER 11. 

Journey into the Interior — ^Mode of Travelling — Remarkable Salt Lake — 
Nocturnal Encampment in a Forest of Jungle— Route to Roodewal, 
a Military Post on the Great Fish River — Hospitable Attentions of 
the Officers — ^Visit from Mr. Hart — Journey up the River of 
Baboons — Groot Willem — ^Terrible Roads-^Picturesque Scenery — 
Arrival at the Location allotted to the Party • . 22—33 



IT CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

Survey of the Location — Name of Glen-Lynden given to it — ^Visit from 
the Deputy Landdrost of the District — A Sabbath in the Wilder- 
ness — Nocturnal Alarms from Lions^ — Extnct from the Author's 
Diary — Guard of Hottentots — Clearing of Ground — Planting of 
Gardens and Orchards — Temporary Huts and Furniture — Purchase 
of Live Stock — Author's Various Occupations — Medical Practice 
— Instruction of the Natives — Intercourse with the Dutch- African 
Colonists ...... 34 — 49 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Location not adapted for extensive Cultivation — Application to 
Government for an enlargement of Territory — Excursion through 
the adjacent Country — The Tarka — Residence and Domestic 
Economy of a frontier Stock -farmer— Village of Cradock— Deputy 
Landdrost— Zwagershoek — Ravages of Hysenas — Rural Hospitality 
—Somerset— Mr. Hart— Extracts from Diary— Crops destroyed by 
Rust or Mildew ..... 50—66 



CHAPTER V. 

Insurrection of Frontier Boors in 1815 — Case of the Hottentot, Booy 
—Oppression of the Native Race — Conduct and Fate of Frederick 
Be2uidenhout — ^Views of the Insurgents — Failure of their Schemes 
— Their Surrender — Pursuit of the Fugitives — Desperate Re- 
sistance of the Bezuidenhouts —Trial and Punishment of the 
Prisoners ...... 67' — 77 



CONTESTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Disheartening Occurrences at the beginning of 1821 — Elzcursiou with 
Mr. Hunt — Flocks of Springboks — Desolate Plains— Zureberg 
Mountains — Magnificent Scenery — Haunts of the Elephant- 
Valley of the White River — Moravian Settlement of Enon — 
Anecdotes of the Caffer Wars — ^African Forests — Elephant Saga- 
city — Return across the Mountains — Account of the Slaughter of 
the Elder Stockenstrom on the Zureberg by the Caffers 78 — 105 



CHAPTER VII. 

Interview with the Acting Governor at Somerset — Further Enlargement 
of the Location — Excursion to Albany —Appearance of the Country 
near the Coast — Situation of the Albany Settlers in July, 1831 — 
Predatory Bushmen — Mulatto Hottentots settled at Glen-Lynden — 
Their Character — Sub-division of the Location — Author's Resi- 
dence at Eildon — Description of an Emigrant's Cabin — Privations 
— ^The Ceded Territory — The Winterberg — Scenery of the Koonap 
River and its Branches — Excursion with a Party of Officers — 
A Herd of Elephants — Remarkable Escape of Lieutenant Moodie 

106—131 



CHAPTER VIIL 

Wars with the Wild Beasts ; Lion-hunting — Notices and Anecdotes of 
other Animals ; Leopards ; Hyaenas ; the Hippopotamus and 
Rhinoceros; the Buffalo; the Gnu; the Quagga; the Ursine 
Baboon, &c. — The Secretary Bird — Hanging Nests of the Loxia 
and Weaver-bird — Serpents ; Antidotes against the Effects of their 
Poison— The Guana, and other Reptiles — Insects — Locusts — 
Exuberance of Animal Life . . 131—166 



VI CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. . 

State of Glen-Lynden Settlement in July 1822 — Road-making — 
Military -Guard withdrawn— Arrival of Relatives from Scotland- 
Departure of the Author for Cape Town ; his Views there — 
Graaff-Reinet — ^The Sneeuwberg— Household of an affluent Grazier 
— Hospitality of the Inhabitants — ^The Great Karroo— Habits of 
the Ostrich — Gaol at Beaufort, and its Inmates — Journey along 
the Ghanka River^-Transition from Sterility to exuberant V^eta- 
tion — Hex River — Arrival at Capd Town . . 167 — 187 



CHAPTER X. 

Residence in Cape Town — Favourable Prospects — Professions and 
Character of the Government — Permission to publish a Journal 
refused — Commissioners of Inquiry — Mr. Fairbaim—- Establish- 
ment of a private Academy — A Magazine and Newspaper com- 
menced—Jealousy of the Government — ^The Cape * Reign of 
Terror' — Suppression of the Newspaper — Discontinuance of 
the South African Journal — Persecution of the £ditors^-Sup- 
pression of the Literary Society — Conduct of the Government 
Press— Deplorable state of Society — Ruin of the Author's Pro- 
spects . , . . . . 188 — 213 



CHAPTER XI. 

Excursion to the Interior — Accident near Genadendal— Return to Cape 
Town — State of Affairs — Second Journey to the Eastern Frontier.— 
State of the Settlers in Albany ; their Calamities and Privations ; 
their Treatment by the Government ; Subscription for their 
Relief; their Progressive Advance, and present Prosperous 
Condition ...... 214—226 



CONTENTS. Vll 



CHAPTER XII. 

Return to Glen-Lynden — Swarms of Locusts — Excursion to Graaff- 
Reinet, and Conference there — Colonial Slavery— Bechuana Re- 
fugees — ^The Ficani Marauders — Banditti of the Neutral Ground — 
Notices of the Bushmen, and of the barbarous Policy pursued 
towards them in past and present Times . 227 — 244 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Hottentots— Progress of Colonial Encroachments — Reduction of 
the Aboriginal Race to Servitude — ^Their Condition at the Close of 
last Century — ^Their Wars with the Boors — Oppressions and 
Cruelties — Colonial Redress— Case of Stuurman — Condition of 
the Hottentots during the Author's Residence in the Colony — 
Exertions of Mr. Buxton and of Dr. Philip for their Relief — 
Emancipating Ordinance of 1828 — Colonial Clamours — Account 
of the Settlement at Kat River . . . 245—280 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Caffers ; Their Name, Appearance, Mode of Life, &c. — Their 
First Intercourse with the Colonists — Conflicts with them in 
BruintjeS'hoogte and the Zureveld — Settlement of the Eastern 
Boundary in 1798— Caffer War of 1811— Invasion of Cafferland in 
1818 — The Prophet Makanna — Attack on Graham's Town — 
Speech of Makanna's Pagati, and Fate of that Chief — Lord Charles 
Somerset's Frontier Policy, and Distribution of the Ceded Terri- 
tory — ^The Commando System — Slaughter of Caffer Envoys in 
1824, and of the Chief Seko and his followers in 1830 — Recent 
State of Affairs both on the Northern and Eastern Frontiers — ^Treat- 
ment of the Chief Makomo — Change of System proposed 281 — 342 



Vlll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Topics omitted — Progress of Christian Missions in South Africa — ^The 
Rev. Dr. Philip — Deplorable Slate of the Country beyond the 
Northern Frontier — Character and Influence of the Periodical 
Press — Mr. Fairbairn's Services in the Colony — Caffer Commando 
in December, 1825 — Anecdote of a Caffer Warrior — Conclusion 
of the Author's Personal Narrative, and his Return to England 
— Progress and present State of the Glen-Lynden Settle- 
ment . . .- . • 343 — 356 



NARRATIVE 



OF k 



RESIDENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA, 



CHAPTER I. 



Government Scheme of Emigration to South Africa in 1819 — 
Arrival of the Author with a Party of Settlers in Simeons 
JBay — Visit to Cape Town — Authors Views in emigrating — 
Voyage round the Coast to Algoa Bay — ZHsembarkation of 
Emigrants — Settlers* Camp — Excursion to Bethelsdorp 
— Caffer Captive — Hottentot Congregration — Sanguine Ex^ 
pectations of the Emigrants — Remarkable Fate of two re- 
ligious Polemics — Interview with the Acting Governor — 
Destination of the Scotch Party — Foundation of the Town of 
Port Elizabeth, 

On the 30th of April, 1820, I arrived in Simon's Bay, Cape 
of Good Hope, in the brig Brilliant, accompanied by a party of 
Scottish emigrants, of whom I was, pro tempore^ the head or 
leader. We formed part of a body of about five thousand British 
settlers^ who, in pursuance of a plan to colonise the unoccupied 
territory near the frontier of Cafferland, had entered into engage- 
ments to proceed thither under the patronage of Government ; 
£50,000 having been voted by Parliament to defray the expense 
of our conveyance to the new settlement. The first of the 
Government transports, with its complement of emigrants, sailed 
from the Downs on the 10th of December, 1819 ; and the others, 
to the number of about twenty sail, followed as fast as they could 
get the people and stores embarked. Several of these vessels had 

B 



ARRIVAL IN Simon's bat. 



reached the Cape before us, and had proceeded to Algoa Bay. 
Seyen sail, besides the Brilliant, anchored in Simon's Bay on the 
dOth of April and the first of May, some of which had left Eng- 
land nearly a month before us. We had sailed firom Gravesend on 
the 15th of February, and had had, on the whole, a pleasant and 
prosperous yoyage. But there being two other parties of emigrants 
besides ourselyes on board the yessel(a brig of ddO tons), amount- 
ing to a hundred and fifty-seyen souls, with their goods and 
furniture, we were necessarily a good deal crowded ; and during 
the latter part of the yoyage all of us were longing for port with 
an intense eagerness which only those who haye been in similar 
circumstances can perfectly understand. 

The eyening had closed in before we reached the anchorage in 
Simon's Bay, so that our anxiety to suryey the features of the 
country had been but imperfectly gratified. So eager was this 
desire, that some of my young friends did not sleep that night ; 
and the following morning at daybreak I found all our party 
assembled on the poop, gazing on the bleak hills and sterile sands 
that surround False Bay with yery graye &ces. " Hegh, sirsP 
said one of them, << but this is an ill-&youred and outlandi^- 
looking country. I wad fain hope, that thae hieland hills and 
muirs are no a fair sample o' our African location I " 

While our yessel lay here at anchor for a few days, to take in 
a supply of fresh proyisions before proceeding round to Algoa 
Bay, I paid a yisit to the capital of the colony, which is situate 
on the western side of the isthmus, about twenty-fiye miles from 
the small port of Simon's Town. Cape Town, with its fine bay 
and the magnificent mountain scenery which half enyirons it, is 
so well known from the descriptions of numerous trayellers, that I 
shall content myself with remarking, that it is a regularly built 
and handsome looking town, containing about 20,000 inhabitants, 
of whom 6,000 are slayes, and probably about half that number 
free coloured persons. The whites are a mixed population of 
Dutch and English. Table Mountain, a stupendous mass of rock, 
rises almost immediately behind, to the perpendicular height of 
3,582 feet ; its two wings, the Lion's Rump and Deyil's Hill, 
embracing the town and part of the bay in a sort of crescent* 



author's views in emigrating. d 

The day after my arrival in Cape Town, I had an inter new 
with Colonel Bird, the chief ^secretary of Goyemment, respecting 
the settlement of my party, and also on the suhject of my own 
personal views in the colony. 

It may he proper here to notice, that I had two distinct ohjects 
in view in emigrating to the Cape. One of these was to collect 
again into one social circle, and establish in rural independence, 
my iather's family, which untoward circumstances had broken up 
and begun to scatter over the world. To accomplish this, emi- 
gration to a new colony was indispensable. My father had been 
a respectable Roxburghshire farmer ; and all his sons (fiye in 
number) had been bred to the same profession, except myself. 
The change of times, however, and the loss of capital, had com- 
pletely overclouded their prospects in our native country ; and, 
therefore^ when the Government scheme of colonizing the un- 
occupied territory at the Cape was promulgated, I called their 
attention to that colony, and offered to accompany them, should 
they determine to proceed thither as settlers. After maturely 
weighing the advantages of the Cape, as compared with other 
British colonies, they made their election, and empowered me to 
apply on their behalf to the Colonial Department *. As it was 
required by the Government plan that every party should com- 
prise at least ten adult males, one family related to my wife, and 
two or three other respectable individuals, were associated with 
us. And thus our little band of twenty-four souls was made 
up ; consisting of twelve men, including three farm servants, six 
women and six children. 

My personal views were different from those of my relatives. 
I had received a collegiate education ; and had been employed for 
about a dozen years in the service of his Majesty's Commissioners 
on the Ancient Records of the Kingdom, in the office of my 
esteemed friend Mr. Thomson, Deputy Clerk-Register of Scot- 
land. I had also been recently engaged to a certain extent in 
literary concerns ; having been one of the original projectors and 

* One of my brothers had preyiously emigrated to the United States and settled 
there. Another brother did not get his affairs arranged in time to accompany the 
party, bat followed us out in 1822. 

b2 



4 author's views in emigrating. 

editors of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (.then a liberal^ 
though not a j9arl^y journal) ; and afterwards of Constable's Maga- 
zine. My connection with these journals, howeyer, had rather 
been prejudicial than otherwise to my yiews in life, and had giyen 
me, moreoyer, a decided ayersion to literature, or at least to 
periodical literature, as a profession. Under these circumstances, 
I determined to embark my own fortunes with those of my rela- 
tiyes in the Goyemment scheme of South- African colonization. 
But as neither my pecuniary circumstances nor my preyioos 
habits rendered it adyisable for me to locate myself as an agricul- 
tural settler, I trusted to obtain, through the recommendation oi 
powerful friends, some appointment suitable to my qualificationc 
in the ciyil seryice of the colony, and probably in the newl; 
settled district. 

Haying explained these yiews to my respected friend Sb 
Walter Scott, in the autumn of 1819, that illustrious and bene- 
yolent man entered into them with his characteristic cordiality 
and promptitude. He immediately wrote to some of his minis- 
terial friends in London in behalf of myself and my party o: 
emigrants, and obtained our ready admission among those selectee 
by Goyemment for the new settlement from the yast multitude 
of applicants*. He also exerted himself with the utmost zeal U 
obtain an appointment for myself in the colony ; and when 1 
came up to London in Noyember, 1819, to make arrangement! 
for our embarkation, he furnished me with strong letters o 
recommendation to persons of influence, whose interyention ii 
my behalf he hoped to render eflfectualf . These exertion: 



* I was informed, by a gentleman in a high official situation, and vrho had tht 
very best access to coiTect information, that the number of persons in 'whose behal 
application was made to the Colonial Department on this occasion, with a view t< 
their emigrating to South Africa, exceeded 80,000 souls. 

f It is due to the memory of a man whose recent loss is still felt as a grea; 
public bereavement, to show how warmly he aided my views on this occasion 
although my political predilections were altogether different from his own, an( 
though our acquaintanceship was but recent, and solely of a literary character. Ii 
a letter to me, respecting the application for a grant of land to our party, date( 
September 4, 1819, he says, " I have by this post forwarded the memorial to Mr 
Croker of the Admiralty, with whom I am intimate, requesting him to put it ii 
the proper train without delay. I think I can rely on his intercession with Lore 



author's views IK EMIGRATING. 5 

procured me a letter of recommendation from Mr. Goulbum, then 
Colonial Secretary, to the Governor of the colony, Lord Charles 
Somerset ; with an assurance that his Excellency^ to whose dis- 
posal all appointments, except a very few of the highest grade, 
were intrusted, would be prepared to give the most favourable 
attention to my wishes. It appeared to me necessary for the 
elucidation of the following narrative to state briefly these pre- 
liminary circumstances. 

Having learned, on my arrival at the Cape, that Lord Charles 
Somerset had sailed for England a few weeks previously, on 
leave of absence, I now placed in the hands of the Secretary to 
the colonial government Mr. Goulbum 's letter to his Excellency. 
Colonel Bird expressed his regret that the letter being marked 
^ private,' it could not be opened, either by himself, or by the 
acting governor. Sir Rufane Donkin ; but said that he would 
transmit it by the earliest conveyance to Lord Charles Somerset 
in England, where my interests would be best recommended to 
his attention ; and that meanwhile I would find an opportunity of 
stating my views to Sir Rufane Donkin when I reached the 
eastern frontier. 

I spent about a week in Cape Town on this occasion ; during 
which time I formed an acquaintance with two or three persons 



Batburst and Mr. Goulburn, neither of whom I myself know, and that you will 
be put on as good if not a better footing than any who go out to the Cape.'* 

Again, on the 10th of December, 1819, in reply to a letter of mine, acquainting 
him with the doubts and difBculties which clouded my prospects of a colonial 
appointment, he writes in the following terms : — 

^* I have not yet been able to get my letters from General Dundas, and I fear 
they will not be of the consequence I would wish, as many of his friends have died 
or left the Cape. But, when I come to London, which will be in January early, 
I will take care to get from Lord Sidmouth better recommendations than I could 
do in the present hurry of public affairs, by writing. So that you may make 
yourself assured that you wHl get a packet from me very shortly after your 
arrival at the Cape, if not before, acquainting you with what I can do in your 
behalf. Long experience has taught me how difficult it is to procure what is desired 
from persons high in office, otherwise than by personal solicitation; but Lord 
Sidmouth is an CFXceeding good man, and I doubt not to interest him in your behalf 
when I have an opportunity of seeing him." 

Sir Walter did not come up to London till after I had sailed ; but that he &ith- 
fully kept his promise to me, I received the most satisfactory evidence. The result 
of the applications made by him and by other friends in my &vour will appear in 
the sequel. 



6 TOYAOE ROUND THB COAST 

of worth and talent. Among these were the Rer. Dr. Philip, 
superintendent of the missions of the London Missionary Society, 
to whom I earned letters of introduction from Scotland, and Mr. 
H. £. Rutherfoord, an English merchant of that high order of 
character which is now becoming, I fear, fiar more rare than it was 
in former days. 

We sailed out of Simon's Bay on the 10th of May, with a 
brisk gale from the N.W., which carried us round Cape L*Ag^uillas, 
at the rate of nearly ten knots an hour. On the I2ih, at day- 
break, however, we found ourselves almost becalmed, opposite the 
entrance to the Knysna, a fine lagoon, or salt-water lake, which 
forms a beautiful and spacious haven, though unfortunately 
rather of difficult access, winding up, as we were informed by oar 
captain, who had twice entered it with the Brilliant, into the very 
bosom of the magnificent forests which cover this part of the 
coast. During this and the two following days, having scarcely 
any wind, and the little we had being adverse, we kept tacking 
off and on within a few miles of the shore. This gave us an 
excellent opportunity of surveying the coast scenery of Auteni- 
qualand and Zitzikamma, which is of a very striking character. 
The land rises abruptly from the shore in massive mountain 
ridges, clothed with forests of large timber, and swelling in the 
back ground into lofty serrated peaks of naked rock. As we 
passed headland after headland, the sylvan recesses of the bays 
and mountains opened successively to our gaze, like a magnificent 
panorama, continually unfolding new features, or exhibiting new 
combinations of scenery, in which the soft and the stupendous, 
the monotonous and the picturesque, were strangely blended. 
The aspect of the whole was impressive, but sombre ; beautiful, 
but somewhat savage. There was the grandeur and the grace 
of nature, majestic and untamed ; and there was likewise that air 
of lonesomeness and dreary wildnesSf which a country unmarked 
by the traces of human industry or of human residence seldom 
fails to exhibit to the view of civilized man. Seated on the poop 
of the vessel, 1 gazed alternately on that solitary shore, and on 
the bands of emigrants who now crowded the deck or leaned along 
the gangway ; some silently musing, like myself, on the scene 



TO AL60A BAT. 7 

before us, others conversiDg in scattered groups, and pointing 
with eager gestures to the country they had come so &r to inhabit. 
Sick of the wearisome monotony of a long sea Yoyage (for only 
a few had been permitted by the Cape authorities to land at 
Simon's Bay), all were highly exhilarated by the prospect of 
speedily disembarking ; but the sublimely stem aspect of the 
country, so different from the rich tameness of ordinary English 
scenery, seemed to strike many of the Southron with a degree of 
awe approaching to consternation. The Scotch, on the contrary, 
as the stirring recollections of their native land were vividly 
called up by the rugged peaks and shaggy declivities of this wild 
coast, were strongly affected, like all true mountaineers on such 
occasions. Some were excited to extravagant spirits; others 
silently shed tears. 

Coasting on in this manner, we at length doubled Cape Recife 
on the 15th, and late in the afternoon came to an anchor in Algoa 
Bay, in the midst of a little fleet of vessels, which had just 
landed, or were engaged in landing, their respective bands of 
settlers. The Menai sloop of war and the Weymouth storeship 
were moored beside the transports; and their crews, together 
with a party of military on shore, were employed in assisting the 
debarkation. 

It was an animated and interesting scene. Around us in the 
west corner of the spacious bay, were anchored ten or twelve 
large vessels, which had recently arrived with emigrants, of 
whom a great proportion were still on board. Directly in front, 
on a rising ground a few hundred yards from the beach, stood the 
little fortified barrack, or blockhouse, called Fort Frederick, 
occupied by a division of the 72nd regiment, with the tents and 
marquees of the officers pitched on the heights around it. At 
the foot of those heights, nearer the beach, stood three thatched 
cottages and one or two wooden houses brought out from England, 
which now formed the offices of the commissaries and other civil 
functionaries appointed to transact the business of the emigration^ 
and to provide the settlers with provisions and other stores, and 
with carriages for their conveyance up the country. Interspersed 
among these offices, and among the pavilions of the functionaries 



8 ARRIVAL AT ALGOA BAT. 

and oaval officers employed on shorey were scattered large depots 
of agricultural implements, carpenters' and blacksmiths* tools, and 
iron ware of all descriptions, sent out hj the home goyemment to 
be furnished to the settlers at prime cost. About two fuiiongs 
to the eastward, on a level spot between the sand-hills on the 
beach and the stony heights bejond, lay the camp of the emi- 
grants. Nearly a thousand souls, on an average, were at present 
lodged there in military tents ; but parties were daily moving o£f 
in long trains of bullock wagons, to proceed to their appointed 
places of location in the interior, while their place was immediately 
occupied by fresh bands, hourly disembarking firom the vessels in 
the bay. A suitable back ground to this animated picture, as 
viewed by us from the anchorage, was supplied by the heights 
over the river Zwartkops river, covered with a dense jungle, and 
by the picturesque peaks of the Winterhoek and the dark masses 
of the Zureberg ridge far to the northward, distinctly outlined in 
the clear blue sky. 

The whole scene was such as could not fail to impress deeply 
the most unconcerned spectator. To us, — ^who had embarked 
all our worldly property and earthly prospects, our own future 
fortunes and the fate of our posterity, in this enterprise, — it was 
interesting and exciting to an intense degree. 

It being too late to go ashore that evening, we continued 
gazing on this scene till long after sunset, — till twilight had 
darkened into night, and the constellations of the southern 
hemisphere, revolving in cloudless brilliancy above, reminded us 
that nearly half the globe's expanse intervened between us and 
our native land — ^the homes of our youth and the friends we had 
parted from for ever; and that here, in this farthest nook of 
Southern Africa, we were now about to receive the portion of our 
inheritance, and to draw an irrevocable lot for ourselves and for 
our children's children. Solemn reflections will press themselves 
at such a time on the most thoughtless ; and this night, as we 
swung at anchor in Algoa Bay, so long the bourne of all our 
wishes, many a wakeful brain among us was doubtless expatiating, 
each according to the prevailing current of thought, in serious 
meditation on the future or the past. A long sea voyage, and, 



DISEMBARKATION OP EMIGRANTS. 9 

far more, one with such an object as we had before us, totally 
disconnecting us for a time from the bustling world behind and 
before, and from the great political and social interests of humanity, 
appears, as it were, like a pause or interlude between the acts of 
the busy drama of human life, and deepens the interest both of 
the past and the future by affording a convenient space for 
reflection. This quiet interval was about to close with us ; and 
we now waited with anxiety for the curtain to draw up, and 
unfold in all the distinctness of reality the scenes of novelty and 
adventure to which we had so long looked forward. 

Early next morning, in order to make arrangements for the 
disembarkation of our party, I went ashore with Lieutenant 
Pritchard, the government agent who had accompanied us from 
London. There is no landing-place at this bay, except on the 
open beach ; and when the wind blows strong from the south- 
east, there is a tremendous surf, which totally precludes all 
communication between the shore and the vessels at anchor, and 
even renders the roadstead extremely hazardous. At this time, 
however, the weather was favourable, and we dashed boldly 
through the breakers in the captain's gig. 

The disembarkation of the emigrants from the other transports 
was proceeding with alacrity. Party after party were conveyed 
safely and rapidly through the breakers by the surf boats (managed 
by seamen from the sloop of war), and then borne ashore * high 
and dry ' on the shoulders of fatigue parties of the military. The 
beach was all alive with bustle and confusion, and the boisterous 
hilarity of people who felt their feet on firm ground for the first 
time after a wearisome voyage. Bands of men and women were 
walking up and down, conversing and laughing ; their children 
gamboling around them, and raising ever and anon their shrill 
voices in exclamations of pleasure and surprise, as some novel 
object excited their attention. Other groups were watching 
their luggage, as it was carried from the boats and piled in heaps 
upon the sand ; or were helping to load the wagons appointed to 
convey it to the settlers' camp. Bargemen and soldiers were 
shouting to each other across the surf. Tall Dutch-African 
boors, with broad-brimmed white hats, and huge tobacco-pipes iu 

b3 



10 DISEMBARKATION OF EMIGRANTS. 

their months, were bawling in colonial Dntch. Whips were 
smacking, bollocks bellowing, wagons creaking ; and the half- 
naked Hottentots who led the long teams of draught oxen, were 
running, and hallooing, and waving their long lank swarthy arms 
in front of their homed followers, like so many mad dervishes. 

Leaving the landing-place, we passed some sand-hills covered 
with beautiful shrubs, such as are found among the rare exotics 
of our European greenhouses ; and aloes and other strange plants 
were scattered about, and trodden under foot as carelessly as 
thistles and burdock in an English barn-yard. As we proceeded, 
I observed the large depots of stores and implements provided for 
the emigrants, — some of them but imperfectly protected from the 
weather by coverings of canvass or tarpaulins, and fenced in 
from intruders by chevaux de frise of ploughs and harrows, 
ramparts of packing-cases and grindstones, and bastions of frying 
pans and camp kettles. They were secure enough from depreda- 
tion under the protection of sentinels ; but I regretted to perceive 
that quantities of the smaller articles of iron ware were going 
rapidly to destruction for want of sufficient shelter from the moist 
sea air. 

Afler some little search, we found the deputy quarter-master 
general, to whom the chief management of the disembarkation 
had been entrusted ; and I readily obtained his consent to have my 
party instantly landed. While orders were despatched to the 
surf-boats to expedite their disembarkation, I proceeded to the 
commissariat department to commission tents, provisions, and 
other things necessary for their proper accommodation. These 
stores were furnished to us upon the credit of a sum of 150/., 
which had, agreeably to the general regulations, been deposited 
on behalf of the party in the hands of the home government. 

I then returned to the beach to receive my friends, and to 
guide them to the spot selected, with the consent of the com- 
mandant, for our little encampment, apart from the populous and 
somewhat noisy parallelogram of Settlers' Town. The whole 
party, I found, had just arrived outside the breakers in the ship's 
barge, and were then stepping into the surf-boats. Approaching 
the Highland soldiers who were employed in pulling these boats 



settlers' camp* 11 

with ropes through the surf, I spoke to them in broad Scotch, 
and entreated them to be careful of their country folks, especially 
the women and children. It was delightful to witness the hearty 
outburst of nationality and kindly feeling among these poor 
fellows when I thus addressed them. << Scotch folk I are they ? *' 
said a weather-beaten stalwart corporal, with a strong northern 
brogue—" never fear, sir, but we sal be carefu' o' them!*' and 
dashing through the water as he spoke, he and his comrades 
hauled the boats rapidly yet cautiously through the breakers ; 
and then surrounding the party, and shaking them cordially by 
the hands, they carried them, old and young, ashore on their 
shoulders, without allowing one of them to wet the sole of his 
shoe in the spray. Being Highlanders, these men had no 
connection with our native districts; but the name of < Auld 
Scotland ' was a sufficient pass-word to their national sympathies. 

In the midst of our colloquy with the soldiers, an -officer came 
hastily down to the beach, and informed me, with many apologies 
and expressions of regret, that an unlucky mistake had been made 
in authorising the disembarkation of our party that day, as it was 
found that a party from another vessel had a prior claim to be 
provided for ; and, in order to avoid disputes and any appearance 
oi partiality, it was earnestly requested that we would consent to 
return on board for a few days longer, and resign the tents and 
other accommodations to the rival claimants. This was an 
unpleasant predicament ; but as it would have been ungracious 
to have refused compliance with a request which seemed in itself 
reasonable, my friends submitted with as much cheerfulness as 
could be expected from persons heartily sick of a sea-life, and 
only a minute before almost wild with joy to find themselves once 
more on dry land. The whole party, therefore, with the exception 
of another gentleman and myself, were immediately re-embarked, 
under the care, and accompanied by the friendly condolements of 
their Highland countrymen. 

I then strolled along the beach to survey more closely the 
camp of the settlers, which had looked so picturesque irom the 
sea. On my way I passed two or three marquees, pitched apart, 
among the evergreen bushes which were scattered between the 



12 SETTLERS* CAMP. 

sand-hills and the heights behind. These were the encampments 
of some of the higher class of settlers^ and evinced the taste of 
the occapants by the pleasant situations in which they were 
placed, and by the neatness and order of ever3rthing about them« 
Ladies and gentlemen, elegantly dressed, were seated in some of 
them with books in their hands ; others were rambling among 
the shrubbery and over the little eminences, looking down upon 
the bustling beach and bay. One or two handsome carriages 
were standing in the open air, exhibiting some tokens of aristo- 
cratic rank or pretension in the proprietors. It was obvious that 
several of these families ha<l been accustomed to enjoy the luxu- 
rious accommodations of refined society in England. How far 
they had acted wisely in embarking their property and the 
happiness of their families in an enterprise like the present, and 
in leading their respective bands of adventurers to colonize the 
wilds of Southern Africa, were questions yet to be determined. 
Foreseeing, as I did in some degree (although certainly by no 
means to the full extent), the difficulties and privations inevitable 
in such circumstances, I could not view this class of emigrants, 
with their elegant arrangements and appliances, without some 
melancholy misgivings as to their future fate ; for they appeared 
utterly unfitted by former habits, especially the females^ for 
roughing it (to use the expressive phraseology of the camp) 
through the first trying period of the settlement. 

A little way beyond, I entered the Settlers* Camp. It con- 
sisted of several hundred tents, pitched in parallel rows or streets, 
and occupied by the middling and lower classes of emigrants. 
These consisted of various descriptions of people ; and the air, 
aspect, and array of their persons and temporary residences, were 
equally various. There were respectable tradesmen and jolly 
farmers, with every appearance of substance and snug English 
comfort about them. There were watermen, fishermen, and 
sailors, from the Thames and English sea-ports, with the reckless 
and weather-beaten look usual in persons of their perilous and 
precarious professions. There were numerous groups of pale- 
visaged artisans and operative manufacturers, from London and 
other large towns, of whom doubtless a certain proportion were 



EXCURSION TO B£TH£LSDORP« 18 

persons of highly reputable character and steady habits, but a far 
larger portion were sqaalid in their aspect, slovenly in their 
attire and domestic arrangements, and discontented and uncour- 
teous in their demeanour. Lastly, there were parties of pauper 
agricultural labourers, sent out by the aid of their respective 
parishes, healthier perhaps than the class just mentioned, but not 
apparently happier in mind, nor less generally demoralised by the 
untoward influence of their former social condition. On the 
whole, they formed a motley and rather unprepossessing collection 
of people. Guessing vaguely from my observations on this 
occasion, and on subsequent rambles through their locations, I 
should say that probably about a third part were persons of real 
respectability of character, and possessed of some worldly sub- 
stance ; but that the remaining two- thirds were for the most part 
composed of individuals of a very unpromising description — 
persons who had hung loose upon society — low in morals or 
desperate in circumstances. Enterprise many of these doubtlessly 
possessed in an eminent degree ; but too many appeared to be 
idle, insolent, and drunken, and mutinously disposed towards 
their masters and superiors. And with such qualities, it was not 
possible to augur very favourably of their future conduct and 
destiny, or of the welfare of those who had collected them in 
England, and whose success in occupying the country depended 
entirely on their steady industry. 

Having cursorily surveyed all that seemed worthy of immediate 
attention at the Bay, I procured a horse, and set out on an 
excursion to Betbelsdorp, the well known Hottentot village, 
about nine miles from the coast. A Hottentot boy, whose only 
dress consisted of a pair of leather trousers and a loose mantle of 
sheep -skin with the wool upon it, acted as my guide, and trotted 
along at a goodly pace by the side of my pony. 

The country in the vicinity of Algoa Bay, though far superior 
to the environs of Simon's Town, has not, on the whole, a very 
inviting aspect. Extensive undulating plains, scantily covered 
with herbage, stretch into the interior, unenlivened (at least such 
was then the case, after passing the little hamlet of Cradockstown) 
with a single farm-house, or any manifestation of being occupied 



14 EXCURSION TO BETHELSDORP. 

by human inhabitants, except such as was afforded by a few herds 
of cattle and straggling flocks of sheep, tended by Hottentot 
herdsmen. These downs were bounded on the west by a range 
of low sterile-looking hills, and on the east by the banks of the 
Zwartkops ri^er, covered with jungle. The lofty and picturesque 
mountains, however, already mentioned, which bound the view 
to the northward, somewhat relieved the otherwise monotonous 
landscape ; and, as I proceeded, the strange aspect of one or two 
small lakes of salt, and the exotic appearance of many of the 
plants, agreeably occupied my attention. On approaching Bethels* 
dorp, the downs were in many places embellished with patches of 
natural shrubbery, consisting chiefly of various species, of ever- 
greens. The aloe, in several varieties, and in great profusion, 
embellished even the most sterile tracts of the wilderness. 

I came in sight of the village just as the sun was setting. The 
shadows of the barren hills which rise above it to the westward 
were falling quietly over the plain. The smoke of the fires just 
lighted to cook the evening meal of the home-coming herdsmen, 
was curling calmly in the serene evening air. The bleating of 
flocks returning to the fold, the lowing of the kine to meet their 
young, and other pleasant rural sounds, recalling to my recoUec* 
tion all the pastoral associations of a Scottish glen, gave a very 
%rdi6able effect to my first view of this missionary village. 
When I entered the place, however, all associations connected 
with the rural scenery of Europe were at once dispelled. The 
groups of woolly-haired, swarthy- complexioned natives, many of 
them still dressed in the old sheep-skin mantle or caroas; the 
swarms of naked or half-naked children ; the wigwam hovels of 
mud or reeds ; the long-legged, large-homed cattle ; the broad- 
tailed African sheep, with hair instead of wool ; the strange words 
of the evening salutation (^goeden avond — * good evening'), 
courteously given, as I passed, by old and young ; the uncouth 
clucking sounds of the Hottentot language, spoken by some of 
them to each other ; these, and a hundred other traits of wild and 
foreign character, made me feel that I was indeed far from the 
glens of Cheviot, or the pastoral groups of a Scottish hamlet — 
that I was at length in the Land of the Hottentot. 



CAFFER CAPTIVE. 15 

The missionaiy, who had been informed of my approach, now 
came forth from his decent brick- built dwelling, and welcomed 
me in. I had a letter of introduction to him, which, though it 
was not requisite to ensure me a hospitable reception, did not 
fail, of course, to increase his cordiality and frankness of com- 
munication. 

While tea was preparing, and before the twib'ght had yet closed 
in, my host was caUed out to speak to another stranger. This 
was a Caffer woman, accompanied by a little girl of eight or ten 
years of age, and having an infant strapped on her back, above 
her mantle of tanned bullock's hide. She had come from the 
drostdyy or district town, of Uitenhage, under the custody of a 
black constable, who stated that she was one of a number of 
Caffer females who had been made prisoners by order of the 
Commandant on the frontier for crossing the line of prescribed 
demarcation without permission, and that they were now to be 
given out in servitude among the white inhabitants of this district.1i 
The woman before us, he added, w^as to be forwarded by the 
missionary, under the charge of one of his people, to the residence 
of a certain colonist, about twenty miles to the westward. Such 
were the orders of the landdrost, or district magistrate. 

While the constable was delivering his message, the Caifer 
woman looked at him and at us with keen and intelligent glances ; 
and though she very imperfectly understood his language, she ap- 
peared fully to comprehend its import. When he had finished, she 
stepped forward, drew up her figure to its full height, extended 
her right arm, and commenced a speech in her native tongue — 
the Amakosa dialect. Though I did not understand a single 
word she uttered, I have seldom been more struck with surprise 
and admiration. The language, to which she appeared to give 
full and forcible intonation, was highly musical and sonorous-; 
her gestures were natural, graceful, and impressive^ and her large 
dark eyes and handsome bronze countenance were full of eloquent 
expression. Sometimes she pointed back towards her own 
country, and then to her children. Sometimes she raised her 
tones aloud, and shook her clenched hand, as if she denounced 
our injustice, and threatened us with the vengeance of her tribe. 



w 



16 HOTTBNTOT CONGBEOATIOK. 

Then again she would melt into tears, as if imploring clemency, 
and mourning for her helpless little ones. Some of the villagers 
who had gathered round, heing whole or half Gaffers, understood her 
speech, and interpreted its substance in Dutch to the missionary; 
but he could do nothing to alter her destination, and could only 
return kind words to console her. For my own part I was not a 
little struck by the scene, and could not help beginning to suspect 
that my European countrymen, who thus made captives of harm- 
less women and children, were in reality greater barbarians than 
the savage natives of CafFraria. 

After our interview with the Caffer woman, I attended the 
evening service of the missionary, in the rustic chapel of Bethels- 
dorp. The place was occupied by a very considerable number of 
the inhabitants of the village, a large proportion being females. 
The demeanour of the audience was attentive and devout, and 
yr, their singing of the missionary hymns was singularly- pleasing 
..*- and harmonious. The effect of the music was no doubt greatly 
heightened by the reflections which the sight of this African 
congregation naturally suggested. I saw before me the remnant 
of an aboriginal race, to whom this remote region, now occupied 
by white colonists, had at no distant period belonged. As I sat 
and listened to the soft and touching melody of the female voices, 
or gazed on the earnest, upturned, swarthy countenances of the 
aged men, who had probably spent their early days in the wild 
freedom of nomadic life, and worn out their middle life in the 
service of the colonists, it was pleasing to think that here^ and in 
a few other institutions such as this, the Christian humanity of 
Europe had done something to alleviate European oppression, by 
opening asylums where, at least, a few of the race were enabled 
to escape from personal thraldom, and to emerge fi*om heathen 
darkness into the glorious light and liberty of the Gospel. 

In subsequent conversations with the missionary, Mr. Barker, 
who evinced great candour and openness, and in the course of a 
careful inspection of the village on the following day, I discovered 
that almost insurmountable disadvantages existed in the situation 
of the place; which was not chosen, as has sometimes been 
erroneously stated, by old Dr. Vanderkemp, but forced upon his 



RBTURN TO AL60A BAY, 17 

acceptance hy the Colonial Goyemment of the day. In the civil 
condition of the people also, and even in the system of manage- 
ment, there were, at the period of my first visit, impediments to 
he overcome, and defects to he remedied of no slight description. 
I shall content myself with observing that, even at this period, 
whatever there might be visible at Bethelsdorp of African wildness 
and want of the accessories of civilization, there was little that 
could with propriety be called savage. There was, even amongst 
the rudest of the people, an aspect of civility and decent respect^ 
of quietude and sober-mindedness, which evinced that they were 
habitually under the controul of far other principles than those 
which regulate the movements of mere savage men. They 
appeared to be in general a respectable and religious native 
peasantry ; as yet, indeed, but partially reclaimed from some of 
the indolent habits of nomadic life, but obviously progressingy 
and, in many instances, already farther advanced intellectually than 
externally. 

Next day I returned to Algoa Bay, and rejoined my friends on 
board the Brilliant. Here, from a variety of tantalizing circum- 
stances not worth recounting to the reader, though they tried our 
patience to the uttermost at the time, we were detained, swinging, 
at anchor, till the 25th, when at length our party were enabled 
finally to disembark. We pitched our little camp, consisting of 
seven or eight tents, on a verdant spot surrounded by evergreen 
bushes, about half way between Settlers* Town and the Govern- 
ment offices ; and having brought all our property from on board, 
including a suitable assortment of Scotch ploughs, cart-wheels, 
and other implements of husbandry, iron-ware, tools, fire-arms, 
cooking utensils, and similar essentials, we made our arrangements 
to wait the arrival of the Acting Governor. 

While we remain ed^^en camped at Algoa Bay, I became ac- 
quainted with some of the heads of emigrant parties, by meeting 
them at the tables of the naval and military officers, to which we 
were hospitably invited ; and I soon found that several even of 
the most intelligent men, were carried away by anticipations of 
the capabilities of the country scarcely less extravagant than the 
expectations of some of our female friends, who fancied they 



r 



18 SANGUINE EXPECTATIONS OF EMIGRANTS. 

would find oranges and apricots growing wild among the thorny 
jangles of the Zwartkops. Bat perhaps a portion of this sanguine 
spirit, however liable to disappointment, is requisite, after aU, to 
tear men from the ties of kindred and country, and from old 
habits more hard to break in many cases than even those ties ; and 
to bear them forward with courageous hearts, to encounter the 
toils and perils and privations of a new settlement, in a strange 
and distant clime. There is a certain charm in adventuroiu 
enterprise that few are so apathetical as to be utter strangers to, 
but which to bold and buoyant spirits is altogether irre8istible> 
and which never fails to array in the most fascinating- colonn 
whatever is connected with the undertaking they happen to have 
embarked in. 

A rather remarkable occurrence, which happened during our 
sojourn here, suggested some reflections of another cast. Of the 
two parties of emigrants who had sailed with us from England in 
the Brilliant, by far the most numerous was composed entirely of 
English methodists and dissenters, who had associated themselves, 
like the early American colonists, on principles of religious as 
well as civil communion. Unhappily, however, their opinions on 
this important topic proved any thing but harmonious. During 
the voyage, having little else to occupy their attention, they 
engaged keenly in polemical discussions ; and under the guidance 
of two local preachers, — a tall grave Wesleyan coach maker, and a 
little dogmatic Anabaptist surgeon, — they soon split in two dis- 
cordant factions of Arminians and high Calvinists. Heated by 
incessant controversy for three months, many of them, who had 
been wont formerly to associate on friendly terms, ceased to 
regard each other with sentiments of Christian forbearance ; and 
the two rival leaders, after many obstinate disputations, which 
became more intricate and intemperate every time they were 
renewed, had at length finally parted in flaming wrath, and for 
several weeks past had paced the quarter-deck together without 
speaking or exchanging salutations. After our arrival at Algoa 
Bay, these two men were both seized, though not simultaneously, 
with fatal distempers. The Wesleyan died on board, without 
even having an opportunity of setting his foot on that land which 



FATE OF TWO RELIGIOUS POLEMICS. 19 

he had longed so ardently to reach. His body was brought ashore 
and interred in the soldiers' desolate burial ground near the beach; 
his former antagonist assisting with tearful eyes at the funeral. 
A few days afterwards the Anabaptist also was taken ill. I saw 
him in his tent, on the sick bed from which he never again rose. 
He told me, with suppressed emotion, that he knew he was dying, 
and was quite resigned to die ; but expressed anxiety for his de- 
stitute family — and appeared as if there were something else 
pressing on his mind which he wished to unburthen. We were 
interrupted, however, and I saw him no more. I suppose it might 
be some feeling of regret, in relation to the unhappy disputes of 
which I had been a witness. Both, however, I have every reason 
to believe, died forgiving each other their trespasses, as they 
hoped to be forgiven : and with a well-grounded hope (for, in 
spite of their intolerance, I believe they were both persons of 
genuine piety,) of receiving a more blessed inheritance than the 
earthly one from which Providence had so suddenly debarred 
them. Being the only individuals who died at Algoa Bay, out 
of more than one hundred and fifty conveyed hither by the 
Brilliant, the event seemed to be viewed by their surviving 
associates as a solemn rebuke for the indulgence of that human 
pride and wrath < which worketh not the righteousness of God/ 
At all events, the moral lesson was a striking one, and it 
i^parently produced a deep effect on the hot controvertists of 
btoh parties. They subsequently founded together a village in 
Albany, called Salem, and lived together, so far as I could learn, 
in Christian forbearance and good fellowship with each other. 
As a pleasing conclusion to the little story, I may mention, that 
about ^ye years afterwards, the eldest son of the Calvinist and 
the daughter of the Wesleyan, who were mere children at the 
death of their parents, became husband and wife. 

On the 6th of June, the acting governor, Sir Rufane Donkin, 
arrived at Algoa Bay on his return from Albany, whither he had 
gone to make arrangements for locating the settlers already 
arrived there, and for the reception of those proceeding thither. 
I had an interview with him on the following morning. He in- 
formed me that it was proposed by Government to locate the 



20 INTERVIEW WITH THE GOVERNOR. 

whole of the Scotch emigrants in the moantainouB conntrf 
watered by some of the eastern branches of the Great Fish River, 
and lying adjacent to the Caffer frontier. The upper part of the 
valley formed by the Bavian*s River had been surveyed for the 
reception of my party ; while the unoccupied territory to the 
eastward was destined for five hundred Highlanders, who were 
expected out under a Captain Grant, and for a smaller party firom 
the west of Scotland, who were understood to be also on their 
voyage out. A district town, to be called New Edinburgh, be 
added, was intended to be founded in a convenient situation, 
where a resident magistrate and a clergyman of the Scottish 
church would be placed for the civil and religious benefit of the 
settlers. The Highlanders, moreover, were to be formed into a 
body of local militia, for the defence of that part of the frontier. 
Such was the plan proposed by the colonial authorities. It was now 
for me, he said, to decide whether I would accede on behalf of my 
party to that plan, or avail myself of the option allowed by the 
original scheme of the home government, to select a location 
among the English emigrants in some other part of the disposable 
territory nearer the coast. Having communicated this proposal 
to the several heads of fiimilies of our party, I was empowered, 
after a brief consultation, to inform the acting governor that we 
preferred the mountain settlement adjoining the proposed loca- 
tion of our countrymen : and thus the destination of the party 
was fixed. 

Mr. William Elliott, a gentleman who had joined us in London, 
on finding we were destined to a location farther in the interior 
than suited his views, now left us to return to Cape Town. He 
was a well educated and well principled young man. He after- 
wards became a missionary under the auspices of the London 
Society ; and is now very beneficially engaged in the instruction 
of the black population at the Paarl, in the district of Stel- 
lenbosch. 

On the 6th of June, we assisted at laying the foundation of 
the first house of a new town at Algoa Bay, designated by Sir 
Rufane ^ Port Elizabeth,' after the name of his deceased lady, to 
whose memory, also, he afterwards erected an obelisk on one of 



FOUNDATION OF PORT ELIZABETH. 21 

the adjoiniDg heights. In the course of fourteen years thig place 
has grown up to be the second town in the colony, both for 
population and for commerce ; and it is still rapidly increasing. 
Captain Moresby, of the navy, was the proprietor of the house 
then founded with much ceremony, and of which our party 
assisted to dig the foundation. The only other house then com- 
menced, excepting the temporary offices and cabins already 
mentioned, was one erecting by a Malay named Fortuin, now, I 
understand, one of the wealthiest and most respectable inhabitants 
of the place. 



22 



CHAPTER 11. 

Journey into the Interior — Mode of travelling' — RemarkcMe 
Salt Lake — Nocturnal Encampment in a Forest of Jungle — 
Route to Roodewaly a military Post on the GrecU Fish JRker 
— Hospitable Attentions of the Officers — Visit fro/m Mr, Hart 
— Journey up the River tf Baboons — Groot Willem — Terribk 
Roads — Picturesque Scenery — Arrival at the Z^ocaHon allotted 
to the Party, 

Another week elapsed^ after our destination had been fixed, 
before the commissariat could furnish wagons to convey ns and 
our < stuff ' to our location among the mountains. These carriages 
were the common country wagons used by the Dutch- African 
colonists. They were called out by a Government order in a 
certain quota from each field cometcy, or local subdivision of the 
eastern districts ; and were to be paid for at a stipulated rate, out 
of the money deposited by each party of emigrants in the hands 
of Government. The distance from Algoa Bay to Bavian's 
River, whither we were bound, was estimated to be about 170 
miles by the route which it was necessary for us to foUow ; and 
as there was no place by the way where provisions could be pro- 
cured (excepting sheep), until we reached the military post of 
Roodewal, we stored our carriages with an adequate supply of all 
necessaries for the journey. 

We struck our tents on the ISth of June, which is about the 
middle of winter in the southern hemisphere. The weather was 
. serene and pleasant, though chill at night — somewhat like fine 
September weather in England. Our travelling train consisted 
of seven wagons ; all, except one which was driven by a slavey 
being conducted by the owners or their sons, Dutch-African 
farmers. These vehicles were admirably adapted for the nature 
of the country, which is rugged and mountainous and generally 
destitute of any other roads than the rude tracks originally struck 
across the wilderness by the first European adventurers; and 



JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR. 23 

which are repaired hy merely throwing earth and faggots into the 
gulleys and beds of torrents, which during heavy rains sometimes 
render them impassable. Each wagon is provided with a raised 
canvas tilt to protect the traveller from sun and rain ; and is 
drawn by a team of ten or twelve oxen, fastened with wooden 
yokes to a strong central trace {trektofv)^ formed of twisted 
thongs of bullock's or buffalo's hide. The driver sits in front to 
guide and stimulate the oxen, armed with a whip of enormous 
length ; while a young Hottentot, running before, leads the team 
by a thong attached to the horns of the foreost pair of bullocks. 

Having forded the Zwartkops River, we unyoked, and dined 
on its farther bank amidst a clump of mimosa trees. In the 
aflemoon^ on resuming our journey, I induced the drivers, by a 
little present of tobacco, to deviate a iew miles from our direct 
route, in order to visit a remarkable salt lake, which I knew 
^m Mr. Barrow's account to be in the vicinity. After travel- 
ling about a couple of hours through a dense jungle, or forest oi 
shrubbery, we reached its southern bank about sunset. 

This lake, which lies in the midst of an extensive plain, 
elevated considerably above the level of the sea, is of an oval 
form, about three miles in circumference, and has on one side 
a sloping margin of green turf; in other parts, banks of greater 
elevation and abruptness are covered with continuous thickets of 
arboreous and succulent plants. At the time of our visit the 
whole of the lake round the margin, and a considerable portion 
of its entire surface, was covered with a thick rind of salt 
sprinkled over with small snow-white crystals, giving the whole 
basin the aspect of a pond partially A*ozen and powdered over 
with hoar frost or flakes of snow. This wintry appearance of 
the lake formed a singular contrast with the exuberant vegetation 
which embowered its margins^ where woods of beautiful ever- 
greens and elegant acacias were intermingled with flowering 
shrubs and succulent plants of lofty size and strange exotic 
aspect, — such as the portulacaria afra (favourite food of the 
elephant), the tree crassula, the scarlet cotelydon, with several 
species of the o/oe, some of them of large size, and in summer 
crested with superb tiaras of blood-red blossoms ; and, high over 



24 REMARKABLE SALT LAKE. 

all, gigantic g^ves of euphorbia^ extending their leafless arms 
above the far-spread forest of shmbbery. The effect of the 
whole, flushed with a rosy tinge by the setting smi) was singularly 
striking and beautiful. I did not attempt to examine the saline 
incrustation, which is said to extend over the whole bottom of 
the lake ; but I tasted the water, and found it as salt as brine. 
Of the various theories suggested by naturalists to account for 
the formation of this singular Salt Pan (as it is called by the 
colonists), that which ascribes its origin to saline springs in the 
bottom appears the most probable. 

Having obtained from this natural reservoir a snfiBcient quan- 
tity of excellent culinary salt to supply our party for a twelve- 
month, we continued our journey through the wilderness of 
jungle until the twilight closed in ppon us ; when, selecting an 
open space among the bushes, we unyoked^ or, according to the 
colonial phrase, outspanned the teams. 

Our encampment this night was to our yet imexperienced 
eyes rather a singular scene. Some &milies pitched their tent6, 
and spread their mattresses on the dry ground; others, more 
vividly impressed with the terror of snakes, scorpions, tarantulas,' 
and other noxious creatures of the African clime, of which they 
had heard or read, resolved to sleep as they had travelled — above 
their baggage in the wagons. Meanwhile our native attendants 
adopted due precautions to avert surprise A*om the more formid- 
able denizens of the forest. Elephants and lions had formerly 
been numerous in this part of the country, and were still 
occasionally, though but rarely, met with. Two or three laige 
fires were therefore kindled to scare away such visitants ; and the 
oxen, for greater security, were fastened by their horns to the 
wheels of the wagons. The boors unslung their huge guns (or roeny 
as they called them) from the tilts of the wagons, and placed them 
against a magnificent evergreen bush, in whose shelter, with a 
fire at their feet, they had fixed their place of repose. Here, 
untying each his leathern scrip, they produced their provisions 
for supper, consisting chiefly of dried bullock*8 flesh, which they 
seasoned with a moderate zoopjcy or dram, of colonial hrandeunfni 
from a huge horn slung by each man in his wagon beside bit 



NOCTURNAL ENCAMPMENT. 25 

powder-flask. The slave men and Hottentots, congregated apart 
round one of the watch fires, made their frugal meal, without 
the brandy^ but with much more merriment than their phleg- 
matic masters. In the meanwhile our frying-pans and tea-kettles 
were actively employed ; and by a seasonable liberality in the 
beverage < which cheers but not inebriates,' we ingratiated 
ourselves not a little with both classes of our escort, especially 
with the coloured caste, who prized ' tea-water ' as a rare and 
precious luxury. 

It was not a little amusing after supper (as I sat in the front 
of my wagon jotting down in my note book the day's memo- 
randa) to contemplate the characteristic groups which our rustic 
camp exhibited. The Dutch-African boors, most of them 
men of almost gigantic siz^, sat apart in their bushy bield, 
in aristocratic exclusiveness, smoking their huge pipes with 
self-satisfied complacency. Some of the graver emigrants were 
seated on the trunk of a decayed tree, conversing in broad Scotch 
on subjects connected with our settlement, and on the compara- 
tive merits of long and short-horned cattle (the horns of the 
native oxen, by the way, are enormous) : and the livelier young 
men and servant lads were standing round the Hottentots, 
observing their merry pranks, or practising with them a lesson 
of mutual tuition in their respective dialects ; while the awkward 
essays at pronunciation on either side supplied a fund of cease- 
less entertainment. Conversation appeared to go on with 
alacrity, though neither party understood scarcely a syllable of 
the other's language; while a sly rogue of a Bushman sat 
behind, all the while mimicking, to the very life, each of us in 
succession. These groups, with all their variety of mien and 
attitude, character and complexion, — now dimly discovered, now 
distinctly lighted up by the fitful blaze of the watch-fires ; the 
exotic aspect of the clumps of aloes and euphorbias, peeping out 
amidst the surrounding jungle, in the wan light of the rising 
moon, seeming to the excited fancy like bands of Caffer warriors 
crested with plumes and bristling with assagais ; together with 
the uncouth clucking gibberish of the Hottentots and Bushmen 
(for there were two or three of the latter tribe among our 

c 



26 ROUTE TO ROODEWAL. 

wagon leaden), and their loud burets of .wild and eldritdi 
laughter ; had altogether a very strange and striking effect, and 
made some of us feel far more impressively than we had yet felt, 
that we were now indeed pilgrims in the wilds of savage Africa. 

By degrees the motley groups became hushed under the 
influence of slumber. The settlers retired to their tents or their 
wagons ; the boore, sticking their pipes in the bands of their 
broad-brimmed hats, wrapped themselves in their great coats, 
and, fearless of snake or scorpion, stretched their limbs on the 
bare ground; while the Hottentots, drawing themselves each 
under his sheep-skin caross, lay coiled up, with their feet to the 
fire and their faces to the ground, like so many hedge-hogs. 
Over the wide expanse of wilderness, now reposing under the 
midnight moon, profound silence reigned, — unbroken save by 
the deep breathing of the oxen round the wagons, and, at times, 
by the far-off melancholy howl of a hyaena, the first voice of a 
beast of prey we had heard since our landing. With the nightly 
serenade of the jackal and hyaena we soon became &miliar ; nor 
did any more formidable visitants disturb us during our journey. 

Having thus detailed our mode of travelling and bivouacking 
in the wilds, I shall pass rapidly over the ground which we 
traversed during the ensuing eight days, and which has been 
repeatedly described by travellere. Suffice it to say that we 
crossed successively the Kuga, the Sunday, the Bushman, the 
New-year, and the Little Fish rivers. None of these rivers 
contained any considerable stream of water : some of them were 
quite stagnant, and almost dry. Nevertheless, the great depth 
of their beds, and the abruptness of the banks, rendered the 
crossing of them with our heavy-loaded vehicles a task some- 
times of no ordinary difficulty. We passed also over an exten- 
sive tract of mountainous country near the Zureberg, where the 
roads appeared to us most frightful and perilous. Certainly no 
wheel carriage used in England could have survived them ; but 
our African charioteers jolted us along with great sang'/raH 
and without any material disaster. Sometimes we had two 
teams of twelve oxen each yoked to one wagon, to drag oar 
loads of iron-ware up the steep hills; and then there 



HOSPITABLE ATTENTIONS OF THE OFFICERS. 27 

tremendous shouting, and barbarous flogging of the poor animals- 
But these are ordinary occurrences in Cape travelling. We saw 
but few inhabitants of any class, and few wild animals^ except 
antelopes and quaggas in the distance. The features of the 
country changed alternately from dark jungle to rich park-like 
scenery, embellished with graceful clumps of evergreens; and 
from that again to the desolate sterility of savage mountains, or 
of parched and desert plains^ Scattered over with huge ant- 
hillocks and flocks of springboks. Here and there a solitary 
farm-house appeared near some permanent fountain or willow- 
margined river; and then again the dreary wilderness would 
extend for twenty miles or more without a drop of water. 

At length, on the 21st of June, we reached Roodewal, a 
military post on the Great Fish River, estimated to be upwards 
of 130 miles from Algoa Bay by the route we had followed, and 
about 40 miles distant from the spot allotted for our location. 

Here we were received by the officers of the garrison and their 
ladies with the utmost kindness and hospitality. They insisted 
on our abandoning our tents and wagons during our stay, and 
establishing ourselves in their quarters, where some of them 
resigned their own apartments to accommodate our females and 
children. < Roughing it,' as we had been doing for the last four 
weeks, in tents and wagons, and after a journey of nine days 
over such execrable roads, and through a country so waste and 
lonesome that it seemed almost devoid of inhabitants, we felt the 
sudden and unexpected transition to the cordial hospitalities and 
English comforts of our agreeable hosts altogether delight^. 
We had not entered a house since we left Algoa Bay, except one 
or two comfortless boors' cabins, and indeed had scarcely seen 
above a dozen farm-houses during our whole journey ; the route 
we had followed having necessarily led us through one of the 
wildest and least inhabited tracts of the frontier districts. 

On the following day we received a visit from Mr. Hart, a 
Scotch gentleman residing in the vicinity, and father-in-law to 
Lieutenant Stretch, one of our kind entertainers. He had 
£armeriy been an officer in the Cape Corps (a Hottentot regi- 
ment raised for the defence of the colony), but was now super- 

c2 



28 VISIT FROM MR« HART. 

intendent of a great agricultural and commissariat establishment 
belonging to goyemment, called the Somerset Farm, lying at 
the foot of the Boschberg mountains. Having resided altogether 
upwards of twenty years in Southern Africa, he was extremely 
weir informed respecting the capabilities of the country and the 
character of the inhabitants. His information and advice, there- 
fore, in regard to many points connected with the successful 
prosecution of the enterprise we were engaged in, were highly 
important, and were communicated with much kindly feeling, 
and with a certain shrewd sagacity which we found to be one of 
his characteristic features. 

A numerous party of us were assembled at tea in the officers* 
dining hall, when Mr. Hart joined us. The Scottish accent, 
seldom entirely lost even by the most polished of the middle ranks 
of our countrymen, was heard from every tongue; and the broad 
< Doric dialect* prevailed, spoken by female voices, fresh and un- 
sophisticated from the banks of the Teviot and the Fields Lothian. 
Hart, a man of iron look and rigid nerve, was taken by surprise, 
and deeply affected. The accents of his native tongue, uttered 
by the kindly voice of woman, carried him back forty years at 
once and irresistibly, as he afterwards owned, to the scenes of his 
mother *s fire-side; and recalled freshly before him the sofitened 
remembrances of early life — those tender and sacred remem- 
brances which, though apparently buried beneath the cares and 
ambitious aims of after years, are never, in any good heart, 
entirely effaced. Our Scottish poet Graham, has beautifully 
described this natural sentiment — ^not unallied to lofty virtues — 
in one of his neglected pieces. 

** How pleasant came thy rushing, silver Tweed, 
Upon my ear, when, after wandering long 
In Southern plains, Fve reached thy lovely banks! 
How bright, renowned Sark, thy little stream. 
Like ray of columned light chasing a shower. 
Would cross my homeward path ! How sweet the sound. 
When I, to heai* the Doric tongue's reply, 
Would ask thy well-known name! 

And must I leave, 
Dear land, thy bonny braes, thy upland dales, 
B^h haunted by its wizard stream, o'erhung 
With all the varied charms of bush and tree ; 
Thy towering hills, the lineaments sublime, 



JOURNEY UP THE RIVER OF BABOONS. 29 

Unchanged, of Nature's tetce, which wont to fill 

The eye of Wallace, as he musing planned 

The grand emprise of setting Scotland free P 

And must I leave the friends of youthful years, 

And mould my heart anew to take the stamp 

Of foreign friendships in a foreign land? 

Yes, I may love the music of strange tongues. 

And mould my heart anew to take the stamp 

Of foreign fiiendships in a foreign land. 

But to my parched mouth''s roof cleave this tongue. 

My fancy fade into the yellow leaf. 

And this oft-pausing heart forget to throh, 

If, Scotland ! thee and thine I e^er forget.** 

Graham's British Georgics. 

On the 23rd of June, after spending two days at Roodewal, 
we proceeded on our journey. We were now provided with a new 
train of wagons, drivers, and attendants from the sub-district of 
Cradock, in lieu of those that had accompanied us from Algoa 
Bay ; and at the residence of the field-cornet Opperman, where 
we arrived the same erening, we were joined by an escort of 
armed boors under his direction, who had been called out to 
accompany and assist us during the remaining part of our jour- 
ney, and to place us in safety upon the ground allotted to us. The 
distance we had still to travel, after reaching Opperman's did 
not much exceed twenty-five miles, but it proved to be by far 
the most arduous portion of our journey. We had now crossed 
the Great Fish River, and, though still within the old boundary 
of the colony, were upon its utmost verge to the eastward. The 
country beyond, for a distance of seventy miles, to the new 
frontier at the Chumi and Keisi rivers, had been the preceding 
year forcibly depeopled of its native inhabitants, the Caffers and 
Ghonaquas, and now lay waste and void, ' a howling wilderness' 
occupied only by wild beasts, and haunted occasionally by wan- 
dering banditti of the Bushman race (Bosjesmen), who were 
represented to us as being even more wild and savage than the 
beasts of prey with whom they shared the dominion of the desert. 

The Baavians' River, or River of Baboons, (now the Lynden,) 
on the banks of which we had arrived, is one of the smaller 
branches of the Great Fish River, flowing from the north-east, 
and watering a rugged mountain glen of about thirty miles in 
extent. The upper part-of this glen could scarcely be said to 



30 GROOT WILLEM. 

have ever been permanentlj settled, but had been fonnerlj 
occupied chiefly as grazing g^ond by a few Dutch- African boorg, 
among the most rude and lawless of the whole colony. These 
men had been dispossessed, and some of them executed for high 
treason, about four years before, in consequence of their having 
taken a prominent part in an insurrection ag^ainst the English 
government; and a portion of the lands thus forfeited were now 
to be assigned as the location of our party. 

Having waited a day at Opperman's for some part of onr 
escort, and a free black, formerly in the British army, who had 
been sent for to act as an interpreter, we moved forward on the 
25tb. After travelling a few miles, we entered the poof% or 
gorge of the mountains, through which the River of Baboons 
issues to the more open and level country where it joins the Great 
Fish River. In the very middle of this poorty we passed the resi- 
dence of a substantial African boor; a gigantic fellow, six feet 
five inches in height, and corpulent withal, who had been one of 
the leaders in the late insurrection. His name was Prinslo ; but 
from bis remarkable size even among a race of very large men, 
he was usually known by the name of Great Willemy big William. 
This African Goliath, however, in place of gnashing his teeth, 
like old Pope and Pagan in the Pilgrim's Progress (as would 
have been but natural), came forth very good humouredly to 
shake hands with us, his new neighbours, as we passed; and 
drank to our better acquaintance out of his flask of home-made 
brandy. And ' as we went on our way,' like old Bunyan's Pilgrims, 
we received, on passing the corner of the orchard, a present of 
excellent vegetables, and a basket of lemons and pomegranates; 
a testimony of good will, which we repaid by distributing among 
the family a few Dutch tracts and hymn books. Groot Willem's 
house and farm offices, were constructed in a nook of the glen, 
with tremendous precipices of naked rock rising above and around, 
so as barely to leave on the bank of the river sufficient space for 
the houses and cattle-folds, together with a well-stocked garden 
and orchard, inclosed with quince and pomegranate hedges^ and 
a small plot of corn land below. 

A couple of miles or so above this spot, we came to a point 



TERRIBLE ROADS. dl 

where the Lynden is joined by a subsidiary rivulet, called Bosch" 
Fonteiuy — now the Flora. This little stream waters a valley of 
seven or eight miles in length, containing fine pasturage, and 
rich alluvial soil capable of being extensively cultivated by the 
aid of irrigation ; without which, in fact, little or nothing can be 
raised in the arid climate of South Africa, at any considerable 
distance from the coast. Looking up this valley, which extends 
eastward behind the back of the Kahaberg, we observed the 
skirts of the magnificent timber forests, which cover the southern 
fronts of this range, stretching over the summits of the green 
hills at the head of the glen. In those hills are the sources of 
the Flora, which being fed by more frequent rains than most 
other parts of the adjoining country, and protected from evapo- 
ration by the dense woods, furnish a perpetual supply of pure 
water ; an advantage which in this country is quite invaluable, 
and for the want of which nothing else can compensate. To this 
valley, and the wooded hills which bound it, we gave the name 
of Ettrick Forest. 

Leaving this subsidiary glen on our right, we proceeded up 
the River of Baboons. To this point the wagon track, wild and 
rugged as it was, might be considered comparatively safe and in 
good repair ; but it now became difficult and dangerous to a degree 
far exceeding any thing we had yet encountered or formed a 
conception of; insomuch that we were literally obliged to hew 
out our path up the valley through jungles and gullies, and beds 
of torrents, and rocky acclivities, forming altogether a series of 
obstructions which it required the utmost exertions of the whole 
party, and of our experienced African allies, to overcome. 

The scenery through which we passed was in many places of 
the most picturesque and singular description. Sometimes the 
ralley widened out, leaving space along the liver side for fertile 
meadows, or haughs (as such spots are called in the south of 
Scotland), prettily sprinkled over with mimosa trees and ever- 
green shrubs, and then clothed with luxuriant pasturage up to 
the bellies of our oxen. Frequently the mountains, again con- 
verging, left only a narrow defile, just broad enough for the stream 
to find a passage ; while precipices of naked rock rose abruptly, 



82 PICTURESQUE SCENERY. 

like the walls of a rampart, to the height of rnanj hundred feet, 
and in some places appeared absolotelj to oreiliang the sayage- 
looking pass or poort, through which we and our wagons stn^- 
gled below ; our only path being occasionally the rockj bed of 
the shallow river itself, encumbered with huge blocks of stone 
which had Mien from the cliffs, or worn smooth as a marble 
pavement by the sweep of the torrent floods. At this period the 
River of Baboons was a mere rill, gargling gently along its rag- 
ged course, or gathered here and there into natural tanks, called 
in the language of the country zeekoe-gats (hippopotamus pools) ; 
but the remains of water-wrack, heaved high on the clifis, or 
hanging upon the tall willow trees, which in many places fringed 
the banks, afforded striking proof that at certain seasons this 
diminutive rill becomes a mighty and resistless flood. The steep 
hills on either side often assumed very remarkable shapes — em- 
battled, as it were, with natural ramparts of freestone or trap 
rock — and seemingly garrisoned with troops of the large baboons 
from which the river had received its former Dutx;h appellatioD. 
The lower declivities were covered with good pasturage, and 
sprinkled over with evergreens and acacias; while the cliffs that 
overhung the river had their wrinkled fronts embellished with 
various species of succulent plants and flowering aloes. In other 
spots the freestone and basaltic rocks, partially worn away with 
the waste of years, had assumed shapes the most singular and 
grotesque ; so that with a little aid from fancy, one might imagine 
them the ruins of Hindoo or Egyptian temples, with their half 
decayed obelisks, columns, and statues of monster deities. 

It were tedious to relate the difficulties, perils, and adventures, 
which we encountered in our toilsome march oifive days up this 
African glen ; — to tell of our pioneering labours with the hatchet, 
the pick-axe, the crow-bar, and the sledge-hammer, — and the 
lashing of the poor oxen, to force them on (sometimes 20 or 30 
in one team) through such a track as no English reader can 
form any adequate conception of. In the upper part of the 
valley we were occupied two entire days in thus hewing our 
way through a rugged defile, now called Eildon-Cleugh, scarcely 
three miles in extent. At length, after extraordinary exertions 



ARRIVAL AT THE LOCATION. 83 

and hair-breadth escapes — the breaking down of two wagons, and 
the partial damage of others — we got through the last poorty of 
the glen, and found ourselves on the summit of an elevated ridge, 
commanding a view of the extremity of the valley. "And now, 
mynheer," said the Dutch-African field-comet who commanded 
our escort, " daar leg uwe veld, " — " there lies your country." 
Looking in the direction where he pointed, we beheld extend- 
ing to the northward, a beautiful vale, about six or seven miles 
in length, and varying from one to two in breadth. It appeared 
like a verdant basin, or cul de sac, surrounded on all sides by an 
amphitheatre of steep and sterile mountains, rising in the back- 
ground into sharp cuneiform ridges of very considerable elevation ; 
their summits being at this season covered with snow, and esti- 
mated to be about 5000 feet above the level of the sea. The 
lower declivities were sprinkled over, though somewhat scantily, 
with grass and bushes. But the bottom of the valley, through 
which the infant river meandered, presented a warm, pleasant, 
and secluded aspect ; spreading itself into verdant meadows^ shel- 
tered and embellished, without being encumbered, with groves of 
mimosa trees, among which we observed in the distance herds of 
wild animals — antelopes and quaggas — pasturing in undisturbed 
quietude. 

" Sae that's the lot o' our inheritance, then ?" quoth one of the 
party, a Scottish agriculturist. "Aweel, now that we've really 
got tiirt, I maun say the place looks no sae mickle amiss, and 
may suit our purpose no that ill, provided thae haughs turn out 
to be gude deep land for the pleugh, and we can but contrive to 
find a decent road out o' this queer hieland glen into the low- 
lands — like ony other Christian country." 

Descending into the middle of the valley, we unyoked the 
wagons, and pitched our tents in a grove of mimosa trees on the 
margin of the river; and the next day our armed escort, with the 
train of shattered vehicles, set out on their return homeward, 
leaving us in our wild domain to our own courage and resources* 



c3 



34 



CHAPTER III. 

Survey of the LocaHon-^Name of Glen^Lynden given to it — 
Visit from the Deputy Landdrost of the District — A Sab- 
bath in the Wilderness — Nocturnal Alarms from lAons — 
ExtroAit from the Author's Diary — Guard of Hottentots — 
Clearing of Ground — Planting of Gardens and Orchards — 
Temporary Huts and Furniture — Purchase of Live Stock — 
Author* s Various Occupations — Medical Practice'^ Instrut* 
tion of the Natives — Intercourse with the DutchrAfrioo» 
Colonists. 

Our wearisome travels by sea and land were at length ter- 
minated; and it was remarked that exactly six months, to a daj, 
had elapsed from the departure of the party from Scotland to 
their arrival at their destined home. With the exception of 
myself and two or three other individuals, all the party had 
embarked at Leith for London on the 29th of December, 1819; 
and we reached our African location on the 29th of June, 1820. 
For six long months we had been pilgrims and sojourners — with- 
out any other home since we left London than the crowded cabin 
at sea and the narrow tent on shore. Now we had reached the 
< Promised Land,' which was to be the place of our rest ; and it 
may be conceived with what feelings of lively interest most of us 
assembled the following morning to sally forth on an exploratory 
excursion to the upper extremity and lateral recesses of the 
valley. Leaving a sufficient guard to protect our little camp, we 
proceeded on foot, well armed, to inspect our new domain, having 
as yet no horses, nor any other live stock whatever, except a 
watch dog, which one of the party had purchased by the way. 
We found the valley sprinkled over, as has been already noticed, 
except at the extremities of its subsidiary cleughs, with fine 
clumps and groves of mimosa trees, interspersed with open grassy 
pastures ; while the river, a gurgling mountain-brook, meandered 
placidly through the meadows. Ever and anon, as we advanced 
up the trackless vale, some of the wild animals, which were then 



SURVEY OF THE LOCATION. 35 

its only inhabitants, came in yiew, giving animation to the se- 
questered landscape. A troop or two of quaggas, appeared trotting 
away, with the gait of the wild-ass, over the lower declivities of 
the hills ; the hartebeest (antilope caama) and the duiker {anti- 
lope mergens) bounded gracefully from among the groves and 
thickets ; while the rietbok (antilope eleotragus) and the wild 
hog (riet'vark) rushed from their secret lairs among the reeds 
and sedge that occasionally fringed the stream. Having in- 
spected the whole extent of our territory, we fixed upon a spot 
about three miles above our camp for the temporary settlement 
of the party, until such time as it should be considered safe for 
the several families to occupy separately their respective farms. 
This spot (which on a division of the lands fell into my fat her *s 
allotment, and is now called Clifton) appeared to be the most 
central position, and likewise the best adapted for immediate 
cultivation. Here, therefore, we resolved to erect our temporary 
hamlet *. 

The same day Captain Harding, the deputy-landdrost of 
Cradock (our district magistrate), accompanied by a land-sur- 
veyor, arrived to locate, or formally install us in our lands, and 
to point out their boundaries. This service being completed the 
following morning, this officer again left us with his attendants, 
after strongly advising me to take careful precautions to avoid 
being surprised by our wild neighbours the Bushmen and Caffers. 
He considered our position a very exposed one at that period ; 
and, upon his suggestion, we resolved to place a nightly watch, 
in order to guard our camp from any sudden attack that might 
be attempted by marauders of those tribes. 

The next day, July 2nd, was our first Sunday on our own 
grounds. Feeling deeply the importance of maintaining the 
suitable observance of this day of sacred rest, it was unanimously 
resolved that we should strictly abstain from all secular employ- 



• The name of Glen-Lynden, wbich was then ^ven hy some of us to the loca- 
tion, has heen subsequently extended by the Government to the valley, river, and 
field-cometcy, formerly denominated £avtaan« Rivier. I have therefore generally 
used this Scottish appellation, which has now superseded the Dutch one, and 
become the permanent and official name. 



36 A SABBATH IN THE WILDERNESS. 

ment not sanctioned by absolute necessity ; and at the same time 
commence such a system of religious services as might be with 
propriety maintained in the absence of a clergyman or minister. 
The whole party were accordingly assembled after breakfast, 
under a yenerable acacia tree, on the margin of the little stream 
which murmured around our camp. The river appeared shaded 
here and there by the graceful willow of Babylon, which grows 
abundantly along the banks of many of the African streams, and 
which, with the other peculiar features of the scenery, vividly 
reminded us of the pathetic lament of the Hebrew exiles :— <^ By 
the rivers of Babylon, there we sat; yea we wept when we 
remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in 
the midst thereof." 

It was, indeed, an affecting sight to look round on our little 
band of Scottish emigrants, thus congregated for the first time to 
worship God in the wild glen allotted for their future home and 

the heritage of their offspring. There sat old , with his 

silvery locks, the patriarch of the party, with his Bible on his 
knee, — a picture of the high-principled, grave Scottish husband- 
man ; his respectable family seated round him. There was the 

^idow , with her meek, kind, and quiet look — (the look of 

one who had seen better days, but who in adversity had found 
pious resignation), with her four stalwart sons, and her young 
maiden daughter placed beside her on the grass. There^ too, 
were other delicate females — one of them very nearly related to 
myself — of whom I need not more particularly speak. There 

was , the younger brother of a Scottish laird, rich in blood, 

but poor in fortune, who, with an estimable pride, had preferred 
a farm in South Africa to dependence on aristocratic connections 
at home. Looking round on these and other groups collected 
around me, on this day of solemn assemblage, such reflections as 
the following irresistibly crowded on my mind : *' Have I led 
forth from their native homes, to this remote corner of the 
globe, all these my friends and relatives for good or for evil ? — 
to perish miserably in the wilderness, or to become the honoured 
founders of a prosperous settlement, destined to extend the 
benefits of civilization and the blessed light of the Gospel through 



A SABBATH IN TH£ WILDERNESS. 87 

this dark nook of benighted AiHca ? The issue of onr enterprise 
is known only to Him who ordereth all things well : ' Man pro- 
poses, but God disposes/ But though the result of our scheme 
is in the womb of futurity, and although it seems probable that 
greater perils and privations await us than we had once calculated 
upon, there yet appears no reason to repent of the course we 
have taken, or to augur unfavourably of the ultimate issue. Thus 
far Providence has prospered and protected us. We left not our 
native land from wanton restlessness or mere love of change, or 
without very sufficient and reasonable motives. Let us, therefore, 
go on calmly and courageously, duly invoking the blessing of 
God on all our proceedings ; and thus, be the result what it may, 
we shall feel ourselves in the path of active duty.'* — With these, 
and similar reflections, we encouraged ourselves, and proceeded to 
the religious services of the day. 

Having selected one of the hymns of our national church, all 
united in singing it to one of the old pathetic melodies with 
which it is usually conjoined in the sabbath worship of our native 
land. The day was bright and still, and the voice of psalms rose 
with a sweet and touching solemnity among those wild moun- 
tains, where the praise of the true God had never, in all human 
probability, been sung before. The works of the hymn (com- 
posed by Logan) were appropriate to our situation, and affected 
some of our congregation very sensibly : — 

" O God of Bethel ! by whose hand thy people still are fed ; 
Who through this weary pilgrimage host all our fathers led : 
Through each perplexing path of life our wandering footsteps guide; 

Give us each day our daily bread, and raiment fit provide : 

O ! spread thy covering wings around, till all our wanderings cease, 
And at our Father's loved abode our souls arrive in peace." 

We then read some of the most suitable portions of the Eng- 
lish Liturgy, which we considered preferable to any extempore 
service that could be substituted on this occasion ; and concluded 
with an excellent discourse from a volume of sermons presented 
to me on parting by my honoured relative the Rev. Dr. Pringle 
of Perth. We had a similar service in the afternoon ; and agreed 
to maintain in this manner the public worship of God in our 
in&nt settlement, until it should please Him, in his good 



36 A SABBATH IN THE WILDERNESS. 

Proyidence, to privilege it with the ecclesiastical dispensation of 
religious ordinances. 

While we were singing our last psalm in the afibemoon, an 
antelope {oribi)y which appeared to have wandered down the 
vBlley without ohserying us, stood for a little while on the 
opposite side of the rivulet, gazing at us in innocent amazement, 
as if jet unacquainted with man, the great destroyer. On this 
day of peace it was, of course, permitted to depart unmolested. 

On this and other occasions the scenery and productions of 
the country reminded us in the most forcible manner of the 
imagery of the Hebrew Scriptures. The parched and thorny 
desert— the rugged and stony mountains — the dry beds of torrents 
— " the green pastures by the quiet waters " — " the lions* dens " 
— "the mountains of leopards" — " the roes and the young haits 
(antelopes) that feed among the lilies " — ** the coney of the 
rocks '* — " the ostrich of the wilderness " — " the shadow of a 
great rock in a weary land ;" these, and a thousand other objects, 
with the striking and appropriate descriptions which accompany 
them, recurred to us continually with a sense of their beauty and 
aptitude which we had never fully felt before. 

In our journey from Algoa Bay, we had seen in the distance a 
few herds of large game, chiefly of the antelope tribe ; and we 
found our highland valley to be pretty well stocked with the 
animals mentioned in the beginning of this chapter. But we had 
as yet seen none of the beasts of prey that inhabit the country, 
with the exception of one or two jackals, although we had once 
heard the peculiar growl, or gurvy of the Cape tiger (leopard), 
and had been serenaded nightly by the hungry howl of the 
hyaena, almost all the way from the coast. We were not allowed, 
however, to continue long without a closer acquaintance with 
our neighbours of the carnivorous class. The lion introduced 
himself, in a mode becoming his rank and character, a few nights 
after our arrival at Glen-Lynden. 

The serene weather with which we had been favoured during 
our journey, was succeeded on the 3rd of July by a cold and wet 
evening. The night was extremely dark, and the rain fell so 
heavily that, in spite of the abundant supply of dry firewood 



NOCTURNAL ALARM FROM A LION. 39 

which we had luckily provided, it was not without difficulty that 
we could keep one watch-fire burning. Haying appointed our 
watch for the night (a service which all the male adults, masters 
as well as servants, agreed to undertake in rotation), we had 
retired to rest, and, excepting our sentinels, were all buried in 
sleep, when about midnight we were suddenly roused by the roar 
of a lion close to our tents. It was so loud and tremendous that 
for a moment I actually thought a thunder-storm had burst upon 
us. But the peculiar expression of the sound — the voice of fury 
as well as of power — instantly undeceived me ; and instinc- 
tively snatched my loaded gun from the tent pole, I hurried out 
— fietncying that the savage beast was about to break into our 
camp. Most of our men had sprung to their arms, and were 
hastening to the watch-fire, under a similar apprehension. But 
all around was utter darkness ; and scarcely two of us were 
agreed as to the quarter whence the voice had issued. This 
uncertainty was occasioned partly, perhaps, by the peculiar mode 
this animal often has of placing his mouth near the ground when 
he roars, so that the voice rolls, as it were, like a breaker along 
the earth ; partly, also, to the echo from a mountain-rock which 
rose abruptly on the opposite bank of the river ; and, more than 
all, to the confusion of our senses in being thus hurriedly and 
fearfully aroused from our slumbers. Had any one retained self- 
possession sufficient to have quietly noted our looks on this 
occasion, I suspect he would have seen a most strange array of 
pale or startled visages. The reader who has only heard the 
roar of the lion at the Zoological Gardens, can have but a iaint 
conception of the same animal's voice in his state of freedom and 
uncontrolled power. Novelty in our case, no doubt, gave it 
double effect, on our thus hearing it for the first time in the heart 
of the wilderness. However, we resolved to give the enemy a 
warm reception ; and having fired several volleys in all directions 
round our encampment, we roused up the half-extinguished fire 
to a roaring blaze, and then flung the flaming brands among the 
surrounding trees and bushes. And this unwonted display 
probably daunted our grim visiter, for he gave us no further 
disturbance that night. 



40 EXTRACT FROM THE AUTROR*S DIARY. 

A few days afterwards some of our people had a day-light 
internew with a lion, probably the same indindual who had 
given us this boisterous greeting. They had gone a mile or two 
up the valley, to cut reeds for thatching the temporary huts 
which we proposed to erects and were busy with their sickles in 
the bed of the river, when, to their dismay, a huge lion rose up 
among the reeds, almost close beside them. He leaped upon the 
bank, and then turned round and gazed steadfisistly at them. One 
or two men who had guns seized them hastily, and began to load 
with ball. The rest, unarmed and helpless, stood petrified ; and, 
had the lion been so disposed, he might easily have made sad 
havoc among them. He was^ however, very civil — or, to speak 
more correctly, he was probably as much surprised as they were. 
After quietly gazing for a minute or two at the intruders on his 
wild domain, he turned about and retired ; first slowly, and then, 
after he was some distance off, at a good round trot. They 
prudently did not attempt to interfere with his retreat. 

After this, when we had moved our encampment farther up 
the valley, and had exchanged our tents for temporary cabins, we 
were visited several times during the winter and ensuing spring 
by lions, but without suffering any actual damage from them. 
On one of those occasions a lion and lioness had very nearly 
carried off in a dark night some of our horses, but were scared by 
a firebrand when within a few yards of their prey. When we 
had got some Hottentots placed beside us, we rode out once or 
twice, after being thus disturbed, to hunt those formidable 
visitants, but without coming to actual conflict with them for 
many months. I shall afterwards recur to our wars with these 
and other wild animals of the country. 

To give the reader a more distinct idea of our situation and 
proceedings on our first settlement, I shall extract from my MS. 
journal the notes for a short period at this time, exactly as they 
were written down. 

Monday y July 3. All hands mustered this morning to begin 
erecting our temporary huts at Clifton, three miles up the valley. 
One party appointed to cut willow-poles, another to cut reeds by 
the river, a third to carry the materials to the spot. Peter Rennie 



EXTRACT FROM THE AUTHOR*S DIART. 41 

and myself left to gnard the camp for fear of a surprise from 
native banditti. Some large baboons among the rocks on the 
hill tops at first mistaken for Bushmen. The evening comes on 
wet. Oar camp alarmed by a lion at midnight. [See previous 
account of this occurrence]. 

4th. The weather again clear this morning. Continue our 
labours vigorously ; but the want of cattle and wagons to convey 
the materials proves a great hindrance ; the wood and reeds 
require to be carried two or three miles on men's shoulders. The 
necessity of keeping two sentinels all night is an additional hard- 
ship. This duty all the men of the party, whether masters or 
servants, share equally, relieving guard every four hours. Heavy 
clouds again begin to collect above the mountains. Great appre- 
hensions that the weather will break before our huts are ready. 
Our provisions are also getting short ; and no appearance of the 
supply promised from Somerset. 

6th. Went out with the woodcutters to-day. Saw a troop 
of quaggas and a hartebeest. Tried to shoot the latter, but could 
not get near enough. This antelope is about the size of a moderate 
pony, handsome in its shape, and fleet as a stag. Roused a wild- 
hoar among some reeds, and succeeded in killing him. This 
species of swine resembles a good deal the common domestic hog, 
but is longer in the legs, and runs with greater speed. I was told 
by the boors that there is another sort found in the forests, which 
they call the bosch-varky or wood-swine, much more fierce and 
dangerous than this kind, which they call riet-varky or reed- 
swine. The flesh of the one killed to-day was lean and dry, the 
animal being in poor condition. 

6th. Sent off two men to Roodewal, distance about forty 
miles, to hasten a supply of provisions from the commissariat 
farm of Somerset ; and wrote to Lieutenant Stretch, requesting 
him to purchase for me, if possible, a horse or two. Pressed on 
our hut-building. More appearances of change of weather. 

7th. We were this day surprised by a fall of snow. It lies 
all around us about three inches deep. Though we knew that 
snow falls on the mountains we scarcely expected it in the valleys. 
But our position here is elevated, probably 4000 feet, at least. 



42 EXTRACT FROM THS AUTHOR*S DIARY. 

above the level of the sea* The roar of a lion heard at night up 
the valley. Kindled large fires round our camp. 

8th. Continue our labours in providing materials for the huts. 
Very cold work, in consequence of the snow lying among the 
reeds. Begin to find it heavy labour without cattle. Mr. Sydserff's 
two men, though they only share the toil equally with the rest of 
us, appear disposed to mutiny. They are likely, I fear, to be 

troublesome fellows, at once lazy and conceited. Sandy , 

one of them, told his master to-day, that, though engaged to be 
his farm servant, he had not engaged to watch by night and work 
by day, and, moreover, be every hour in bodily fear of being 
scalped by savages or devoured by wild beasts ; and, though 
regularly indentured for three years, he has giyen warning that 
he will return to Algoa Bay by the first opportunity. Some 
grumbling might be excused, for the work is hard ; but all ranks 
share alike, and this ungrateful lad seems to haye forgotten that 
he was in a state of absolute destitution when his master engaged 
him for this expedition. 

9th. Our messenger returned to-day from Roodewal, but 
without any horses. A supply of flour, however, will be with 
us in a few days. It is time, for we are now on short allowance. 
Our people have several times tried to shoot some of the ante- 
lopes which appear in the distance, but without effect. We are 
but indifferent hunters, and should soon starve, I perceiye> if we 
had to depend on the chase, at least without horses. 

10th and 11th. Working at our huts. Snow still on the 
ground. A lion seen to-day by the reed-cutters ; but he walked 
off quietly without attempting to molest them. 

12th. A soldier arrived from Roodewal, with a horse purchased 
for me by Lieutenant Stretch. Engaged the boor Engelbrecht, who 
is a temporary resident about eight miles down the valley, to bring 
up his wagon and transport our tents, goods^ &c. up to Clifton. 
Engelbrecht is what in America would be called a SquaUer* 
He has no land of his own, and lives at present by sufferance on 
one of the farms forfeited by the rebel boors. He cultivates no 
ground, but, with his family, lives entirely, without bread or 
vegetables, on the milk and flesh of his flock, and what he kills in 



EXTRACT FROM THE AUTHOR's DIARY. 48 

hunting. He appears to be very ignorant and uncultiyated, but 
is civil enough, and has a shrewd eye to his own interest. For a 
little additional pay he conveys to Clifton the wood we had cut 
for hut-building. Purchased a few sheep from him for slaughter. 

ISth. Two Hottentots iirom Somerset Farm arrived with a 
load of flour, which was somewhat damaged by the wagon having 
been overturned in the river. Received a letter from Mr. Hart* 
inviting me to accompany him upon an excursion into Cafferland ; 
but I must decline ; I must stick to my post at present. Divided 
the garden ground and commenced cultivation. 

14th. Departure of Engelbrecht, the Somerset wagon, &c. Wet 
and sleety weather. Our tents leaky, and far from comfortable. 
Several of the females 4*ather seriously unwell. No medical aid 
nearer than Roodewal. Feel severely the want of female servants. 

15th. Pressed on the thatching of the huts. 

16th. Sunday, Weather again bright and serene, though 
rather cold. All the party well again, and in good spirits. Snow 
still on the hills. Report of guns heard up the valley. Boors 
firom the Tarka hunting. Sunday, it appears, is too commonly 
thus spent by many of them. 

17th. Black William (the free negro) arrived with letters 
from the magistrates of our district, Captain Stockenstrom, 
landdrost of Graaif-Rein^t^ and Captain Harding, deputy-land- 
drost of Cradock. They assure me that ten armed Hottentots 
will speedily be placed imder my orders, for the protection of our 
party. The messenger brings a report, that ten of Opperman's 
cattle and seven of Engelbrecht's have been carried off by Bush- 
men. 

18th. Rode out with my brother John and Black William to 
survey more carefully the valley and adjoining country. Nothing 
to be seen from the tops of the nearest hills but other mountains 
higher and more desolate beyond them. The nearest farm-house 
on the Tarka about fifteen miles distant from us. No wagon 
road across. Visited Engelbrecht's Kraal, but found it deserted. 
He, with his wagon, family, flocks, and herds, has moved off 
(perhaps from fear of the Bushmen) to some other squatting 
place. Now our nearest neighbour down the valley is Groot 



44 GUARD OV H0TTSKT0T8. 

Willem about twentj-fiye miles distant. Black William gave us 
gome details of the insurrection of the Boors in this quarter in 
1815, and showed the cave where Frederick Bezuidenhout fired 
on the party sent to arrest him. Found the remains of a vineyard 
planted by Gerrit Bezuidenhouty another of the rebel Boors. 
Curious paintings by the Bushmen on the front of a jutting crsg 
in the vicinity. Isolated rock on the side of an adjacent hill, to 
which we gave the name of Charley's Chuckie. Gave Scottish 
names to several of the subsidiary glens and cleughs^ or hloofi, 
as the colonists call them. Plenty of game in the distance ; bat, 
from being frequently hunted by the Tarka Boors> it seems very 
shy. Observed the traces of a lion near the river. 



These details from my diary will convey a tolerable idea of the 
circumstances of our position at the commencement of our settle- 
ment. By degrees our situation became more comfortable. On 
the 25th of July, the ten Hottentots promised by our civil 
magistrates for a temporary g^ard, arrived; and we were thus 
relieved from the necessity of keeping up nightly sentinels of 
our own body, and from any apprehensions of being surprised by 
marauders from the waste country to the eastward. These 
Hottentots were all well armed, and expert in the use of the 
musket. They were drafted for this particular duty from the 
service of the Dutch- African colonists of the Tarka and Agter- 
Sneeuwberg, to whom all of them were under contract, and were 
supplied with provisions at the expense of the district. I appointed 
one of the oldest and shrewdest of them serjeant over the rest, 
and made him responsible to me for their good conduct. Nor had 
I ever cause to complain, except in a very few instances, of neglect 
of duty or misconduct of any sort in these men, although, during 
the eight months we were thus guarded, we had many changes 
of them, as they were usually relieved by other Hottentots once 
in three or four weeks. There was great diversity of character 
and of civilization among them. Some were intelligent mulattoes 
(or, according to the colonial phrase, Bastaards), the sons of 
colonists by native women. Others were of true Bushman blood 
'-caught young, and tamed by the Boors. All of them^ however, 



CLEARING OF GROUND. 45 

were respectful, faithful, and honest. Although our stores, 
clothing, and other property of various kinds, were constantly 
within their reach, we never missed the smallest article. I shall 
speak of the Colonial Hottentots, as a class of men, more par- 
ticularly in a subsequent chapter. 

Having completed our temporary huts, which were constructed 
after the fashion of the country, simply of a slight wooden frame, 
thatched with reeds down to the ground, we moved into them, 
and made ourselves as snug as circumstances admitted of. None 
of us had brought any household furniture; so that it was 
necessary for each family to construct bedsteads, tables, stools, 
cupboards, &c., for their immediate use ; and in proportion to the 
ingenuity and industry of the respective parties was their com- 
fortable accommodation. As there was no carpenter amongst 
us, or any artisan whatever, except a saddler^ it may easily be 
imagined, that our temporary dwellings and furniture were for 
the most part of a very rude and primitive description. There 
was no chimney, of course, in any of the huts ; but, for culinary 
purposes, a small circular shed, plastered inside with clay, was 
erected in front of each ; and, in cold evenings, a pan of live 
cliarcoal or embers from our wooden fires was the usual succeda- 
seum for a blazing hearth. On the whole, however, these cabins 
afforded a sufficient shelter from the weather, and, rude as they 
were, appeared exceedingly comfortable compared with the tents 
in which we had tabernacled during the three preceding months. 
The object next in urgency was to provide ourselves with a 
sufficient number of horses and draught- cattle for our immediate 
wants, and with breeding cattle and sheep to commence farm- 
stock. For this purpose each family sent one of their number 
over to the Tarka, a district rich in flocks and herds, to make 
purchases ; and, with the assistance of one or two of our Hotten- 
tots for interpreters, this necessary business was satisfactorily 
transacted. Good draught oxen cost us on an average about 21, 
each; cows 1/.; sheep (broad- tailed) about Ss.; and ordinary 
country horses from 3^. to 71, Ten or a dozen stout watch dogs 
were also obtained. 

The cultivation of gardens, and the clearing of land for tillage, 



46 PLANTING GARDENS AND ORCHARDS. 

became objects of engrossing attention as the spring approached. 
Trenches were cut with much labour, to lead out the water of 
two streamlets for irrigating the ground adjacent to our hamlet, 
which was mostly overgrown with mimosa trees. These trees 
were not large, but it was requisite to dig them entirely out by 
the roots, in order to clear the soil for the plough. Some of the 
families considered this labour unnecessary or too severe, and 
sought elsewhere for patches of moist ground clear of trees and 
bushes; but the result in these cases was not so fevourable. 
Some young fruit trees, sent by our friend Mr. Hart of Somerset 
as a present to my father, were planted at Clifton on the 15th of 
August; being the first commencement of an orchard on the 
location. We afterwards obtained an ample supply of slips, 
grafts, cuttings, &c., from some of our neighbours on the Tarka; 
and planted an orchard of apple, pear, peach, apricot, almond, 
walnut, plum and lemon trees, with an avenue of lag trees, and 
a small vineyard ; the whole encircled by hedges of quince and 
promegranate. The most of these plants throve extrenoiely well ; 
and the peaches, figs, and vines were loaded with ftniit the third 
season afterwards. Garden seeds and roots were also sown and 
planted; but most of the seeds brought from England fisdled. 
We procured colonial seeds, however, from our neighbours, and 
succeeded in raising abundance of pumpkins, melons, beet-root, 
parsneps, carrots, lettuce, onions, cabbage, cauliflower, &c. Our 
English potatoes also throve well. Previous to our arrival this 
valuable root was but little used in that part of the colony. 

My father and brothers with their Roxburghshire ploughman^ 
ploughed and sowed with wheat the first cultured land on the 
location on the 1st of September. It was tilled with a Scotch 
iron plough, without wheels, guided by one man and drawn by 
two oxen, — to the great admiration of our Hottentot guard, who 
had never before seen any other plough than the enormous and 
unwieldy Dutch colonial implement of tillage, which has only 
one handle and no coulter, and is usually drawn by eight, ten, or 
twelve oxen, and managed by three or four men and boys. The 
other families were all occupied in a similar way early in Septem- 
ber, which is considered the first month of spring in South Afirica. 



TEMPORARY HUTS AND FURNITURE* 47 

During the two preceding months, we had suffered from cold 
more than wet, and that owing to the want of adequate shelter 
far more than from severity of climate. There was snow, indeed, 
on the summits of the mountains during most of that period, but 
in the valley it seldom lay above a few days, nor did I ever see 
ice there above a quarter of an inch in thickness. 

Gardening had been to me in boyhood a favourite occupation. 
It was with no ordinary delight, therefore, that, after a dozen 
years of city life, I resumed this pleasing pursuit in the wilds of 
Africa. It would weary the reader, were I to indulge myself in 
detailing all my schemes, failures, and achievements in this 
department. My greatest desideratum was an adequate supply 
of skilful labour ; but my success and enjoyment were, notwith- 
standing, beyond expectation. 

I found other employments to occupy my leisure time agree- 
ably. I had brought out a little assortment of carpenter's tools, 
the use of which, when a boy, had also been one of my favourite 
amusements. I was, therefore, not altogether unprepared to act 
the Robinson Crusoe in a small way ; and, besides commodiously 
fuvnuhing my own cabin, in a mode which I shall afterwards 
detail, I succeeded in manufacturing a rustic arm-chair and table 
for my father, — an achievement of which I was not a little 
proud. But my chefd'ceuvre at this time was the construction 
of an oven ; which I contrived to scoop out of a huge ant-hill, 
that happened to stand under an old mimosa tree at the head of 
my garden. After being properly plastered and paved within, 
it proved an excellent oven, and served all the hamlet to bake 
their household bread in for a couple of years. 

To my other occupations, I was obliged occasionally to add 
that of doctor; for at this period the only medical gentleman 
within a hundred miles was the military surgeon at Roodewal, 
whose aid we could not reasonably look for except on very 
serious occasions. The medical skill that I could pretend to was 
of the most superficial description ; but I had brought out with 
me a small chest of medicines, and had learnt to bleed on the 

passage from poor Dr. C , who died at Algoa Bay ; and, in 

that fine climate, my simple domestic medicines, with the occa- 



48 author's medical practice. 

sional U5%e of the lancet in inflammation, sufficed in all ordinary 
cases. One of our Hottentot guard, however, who was lahouring 
under a severe pulmonary complaint, was far beyond the reach 
of my skill. I sent him home therefore to his relatives without 
delay, and heard that he died a few weeks afterwards. 

In a similar limited and provisional capacity, I ventured to 
assume the office of religious instructor to the poor ignorant 
natives placed under my temporary direction. Having, with the 
aid of a grammar and dictionary, made myself, since our arriTsl 
at Algoa Bay, so far acquainted with the Dutch language, (now 
universally spoken by the colonial Hottentots,) that I could 
converse in it on familiar topics, and read the scriptures with 
tolerable fluency, I added, for the benefit of our Hottentot guard, 
a Sunday service in Dutch to our usual one in English. This 
service was of a very simple character; being confined to the 
reading and exposition of plain passages of Scripture, and of a 
short sermon or tract ; some devotional portions of the lituigy 
used by the Dutch Reformed Church ; and the singing of one 
or two hymns. Limited as were our ministrations in this way, 
they had a very pleasing effect. They were attended to with 
an earnestness which it was not less affecting than gratifying to 
witness. To two or three Hottentots (mulattoes) who could 
read a little, I presented Dutch New Testaments, which were 
received with the most lively feeling of thankfulness ; and which 
they were afterwards observed to be often reading, or spelling 
outy to their comrades. Several of them frequently came volun- 
tarily to solicit further instruction; and one poor fellow, to 
whom my wife had given a New Testament, several months 
afterwards sent her, from his master's place, a hundred miles 
distant, the present of a milch-goat with twin kids, as a testi- 
mony of his gratitude. 

I thus found myself all at once, and not a little to my 
own surprise, performing the novel and somewhat incongruous 
functions of a sort of civil and military officer, of a medical 
practitioner, religious instructor, engineer, architect, gardener, 
plasterer, cabinet-maker, and, I might add, tinker! In short I 
was driven to do the best I could in the peculiar position in 



INTERCOURSE WITH THE COLONISTS. 49 

which circumstances had placed me ; and when (as was frequently 
the case) my own knowledge and the experience of others failed 
me, I was obliged to trust to * mother-wit.' 

About this period, we were somewhat teased by Sunday visits 
from our Dutch- African neighbours of the lower part of the 
Glen-^Lynden valley and the Tarka. Solicitous to keep upon 
friendly terms with these people, I always made it a point to 
receive them courteously, and usually asked them to dine with 
me. But finding that they made a practice of visiting us on ' 
Sundays, either to gratify idle curiosity or with a view to 
commercial dealings, I fell upon a scheme which effectually 
relieved us from this annoyance. I took care to acquaint them 
that it was contrary to our principles to transact secular business 
on the Sunday ; and when any of them came, I offered them a 
seat among my Hottentot audience, and invited them to read 
aloud the Sunday Service. Few of them, I found, could read 
even the New Testament without much stammering and spelling i 
and they considered it, moreover, a shocking degradation to sit 
down amidst a group of Hottentots. We were therefore speedily 
felieved altogether from their Sunday visitations. In other 
respects, we found them generally, however uncultivated, by no 
means disagreeable neighbours. They were exceedingly shrewd 
at bargain-making, it is true, and too sharp sometimes even for 
cautious Scotchmen ; but they were also generally civil and 
good natured, and, according to the custom of the country, 
extremely hospitable. On the whole, their demeanour towards 
US9 whom they might be supposed naturally to regard with 
exceeding jealousy, if not dislike, was far more friendly and 
obliging than could, under all the circumstances, have been 
anticipated. 



D 



50 



CHAPTER IV. 

Jlie Lf)cation not adapted /or extensive Culttvittion'^AppUcaium 
to Government for an enlargement of Territory — Excunum 
through the adjacent Country — The Tarka — Residence and 
domestic Economy of a frontier Stock-farmer — VUlage of 
Cradock — Deputy Lanadrost — Zwagershoek — Ravetges of 
Hyrenas — Rural Hospitality — Somerset — Mr. Hari—Bx- 
tracts from Diary — Crops destroyed by Rust or Mildew. 

After we had resided a few weeks on the location, and made 
ourselyes somewhat acquainted with the character aad capabilities 
of the country, it became api>arent to us that the extent of land 
allotted to the party, was altogether inadequate for the comforta- 
ble establishment of the number of families of which it was com- 
posed. On the footing of the government scheme of emigratioD, 
we were entitled to receive only eleven hundred acres for the 
whole party, being one hundred acres for each adult male placed 
on the land. Mr. Sydserff, indeed, one of the heads of fitmilies, 
had, through the interest of a friend, obtained a special grant 
of 500 acres in addition to his share of the general grant. But 
we were speedily convinced, that, in the situation where we 
were now fixed, even a thousand acres per family was an inade- 
quate allotment. It was obvious that the rearing of flocks and 
herds must necessarily become the chief object of attention, and 
that agriculture could only be prosecuted with advantage to a 
very limited extent. We were distant from Algoa Bay, the only 
probable market for grain, at least 170 miles, a distance which 
might be considered to be virtually more than doubled bj the 
character of the roads. We discovered, moreover, that neither 
grain nor other agricultural produce could be cultivated, at that 
distance from the coast, by any other method than irrigation; 
while, at the same time, the supply of water which could be di- 
rected upon our lands, would not suffice for more than fifty or sixty 
acres. Seeing that such was the state of the case, I lost no time 



APPLICATION TO GOVERNMENT. 51 

in making a strong representation to the Colonial Government 
on the subject; soliciting a liberal enlargement of the territory 
granted to the party, in order to afford a sufficient extent of pas-^ 
turageto establish the several families comfortably as stock-farmers. 
A favourable reply to this application reached me on the 12th of 
September, offering the choice either of a considerable extension 
of our present boundary, or a new location of wider extent in the 
lower part of the valley. As it seemed expedient to consult our 
new friends Captain Harding and Mr. Hart, before we made our 
election on this point, 1 set out to visit those gentlemen on the 
15th, being my £rst excursion of any extent since our arrival at 
Glen-Lynden. 

There was at this time no wagon road out of the valley, except 
the difficult and dangerous one which we had cut out or repaired 
for the passage of the baggage- wagons on our first arrival. Being 
now mounted, however, on the light and hardy horses of the 
country, with an active Hottentot lad for a guide, who knew 
every pass of the mountains, and every bridle path through bosky 
dell and barren waste, for several hundred miles around, we cared 
little for beaten tracks, and struck across the hills in a direct line 
for Cradock. On gaining the steep and rocky summit of the 
ridge which divides the valley of Glen-Lynden from that of the 
Tarka and its subsidiary dells, I was struck by the change of 
aspect and of vegetable productions which was suddenly presented 
to me. Behind us, although the mountains were rocky and 
Kterile -looking, they were sprinkled over, though scantily, with 
grass; whilst the valley itself, with its acacia groves and verdant 
meadows, appeared like a little Goshen of beauty and fertility. 
Before us, to the westward, the Tarka opened up in dim perspec- 
tive, with wild savage glens winding down to it through ridges of 
gloomy hills, which, as they approached the main valley, broke off 
into separate peaks, steep, sterile, and rocky, and assuming, in 
many instances, curious conical forms, at once singular and mono- 
tonous. The lower declivities of these hills were variegated here 
and there with patches of low brushwood; but there were no. trees, 
excepting the fringe of willows and of thorny mimosas which 

d2 



52 EXCURSION THROUGH THE COUNTRY. 

generally line the brinks of the rivers and the coarses of the 
mountain torrents. Of any thing like grass there was little or 
no appearance, excepting in some of the recesses and dediyities 
of the hills. The whole country appeared like a cheerless desert; 
and even the alluvial soil along the banks of the river had the 
aspect of a brown heathy waste. 

Descending from the ridge of the mountain by a steep and 
stony path, tracked out by quaggas and other large game, we 
followed the rugged course of a torrent, until we reached, after a 
ride of about three hours, the &rm of Elands-Drift (i. e. Ford of 
Elks), in the valley of the Tarka. This was the residence of an 
old Dutch- African Boor, named Wentzel Coetzer, at that time 
our nearest neighbour; and as his house, £urm, and mode of ti&, 
afford altogether a fair average sample of those of his class in the 
immediate vicinity of our settlement, I shall describe them with 
some minuteness. 

On riding up to the place, which consisted of three or four 
thatched houses, and a few reed cabins (harteheest'huisfes) inha- 
bited by the Hottentot dependents, we were encountered by a 
host of some twenty or thirty dogs, which had been lying aboat 
in the shade of the huts, and now started up around us, open- 
mouthed, with a prodigious clamour, as is generally the case at 
every farm-house on the approach of strangers. In day-light, 
these growling guardians usually confine themselves to a mere 
noisy demonstration; but at night, it is often a matter of no small 
peril to approach a farm-house, for many of these animals are both 
fierce and powerful, and will not hesitate to attack a stranger, if, 
in their eyes, he has the ill luck to appear in any way suspicious. 
The barking of the dogs brought out Arend Coetzer, one of the 
farmer*s sons, from the principal dwelling-house, a frank young 
fellow, who had previously visited us at Glen-Lynden. Seeing 
us thus beset, he came instantly to our help against the canine 
rabble, whom he discomfited with great vigour, by hurling at them 
a few of the half gnawed bones and bullocks' horns which were 
lying in profusion about the place. The young boor was rejoiced to 
see me, and introduced me to his mother and sisters,— a quiet 



RESIDENCE, &C. OF A FRONTIER FARMER. 53 

looking matron, and two bashful girls, who now appeared from 
the house. " Wil Mynheer afeadel?" (*' Will the gentleman 
unsaddle?") was the first inquiry. I readily agreed, intending, 
indeed, though it was still early in the afternoon, to spend the 
night at this place, with the view of becoming better acquainted 
with our rustic neighbours. 

On entering the house, I found that the old boor had not yet 
risen from his afternoon nap, or siesta, a habit which is generally 
prevalent throughout the colony. He was not long, however, in 
making his appearance ; and, after shaking hands with a sort of 
gruff heartiness, he took down a bottle of brandy from a shelf, 
and urged me to drink a dram (zoopj^) with him, assuring me 
that it was good hrandetoyny distilled by himself from his own 
peaches. I tasted the spirit, which was colourless, with some- 
thing of the flavour of bad whiskey ; but preferred regaling myself 
with a cup of tea, which had in the meanwhile been prepared and 
poured out for me by the respectable and active-looking-dame. 
This < tea water ' is made by a decoction, rather than an infusion, 
of the Chinese leaf, and being diluted with a certain proportion 
of boiling water, without any admixture of milk or sugar, is 
offered to every visiter who may chance to arrive during the 
heat of the day. A small tin box containing sugar-candy is 
sometimes handed round with the * tea-water,* from which each 
person takes a little bit to keep in his mouth, and thus to 
sweeten, in frugal fashion, the beverage as he swallows it. 
During this refreshment, I carried on a tolerably fluent conver- 
sation in broken Dutch with my host and his huisvrouw; and 
gratified them not a little by communicating the most recent 
information I possessed of the state of European politics, respect- 
ing which old Coetzer was very inquisitive. 

The domicile of my hospitable neighbours, in which we were 
thus seated, was not calculated to suggest any ideas of peculiar 
comfort to an Englishman. It was a house somewhat of the size 
and appearance of an old-fashioned Scotch barn. The walls were 
thick, and substantiaUy built of strong adhesive clay ; a material, 
which being well prepared or tempered, in the manner of mortar 



54 RESIDENCE AND DOMESTIC SCONOMT 

for brick making, and raised in snccessire layers, soon acquires 
in this dry climate a great degree of hardness^ and is considered 
scarcely inferior in durability to burnt brick. These walls, which 
were about nine feet high, and tolerably smooth and straight, 
had been plastered oyer within and without with a composition 
of sand and cowdung, and this being afterwards well white-washed 
with a sort of pipe -clay, or with lime made of bomt shells, the 
whole had a very clean and light appearance. 

The roof was neatly thatched with a species of hard rashes, 
which are considered much more durable and less apt to catdi 
fire than straw. There was no ceiling under the roof; hut the 
rafters over-head were hung with a motley assemblage of sevenl 
sorts of implements and provisions, such as hunting apparatos, 
dried flesh of various kinds of game, large whips of rhinoceros 
and hippopotamus hide (termed sjamboks)^ leopard and lion- 
skins, ostrich eggs and feathers, dried fruit, strings of onions, 
rolls of tobacco, bamboos for whip-handles, calabashes, and a 
variety of other articles. A large pile of fine home-made soap 
graced the top of a partition wall. 

The house was divided into three apartments ; the one in 
which we were seated (called the voorhuis) opened immediately 
from the open air, and is the apartment in which the &mily 
always sit, eat, and receive visiters. A private room (tlaap' 
kamer) was formed at either end of this hall, by cross partitions 
of the same height and construction as the outer walls. The 
floor, which, though only of clay, appeared uncommonly smooth 
and hard, I found, on inquiry, had been formed of ant-heaps, 
which, being pounded into dust, and then watered and well 
stamped, assume a consistency of great tenacity. In making 
these floors, however, care must be taken to use only su<^ ant* 
hills as have been broken up and plundered by the CMrdoark, or 
ant-eater, and consequently deserted by the surviving insects; 
otherwise, in spite of all your pounding, you may find you have 
planted two or three troublesome colonies beneath your feet. 
This floor is carefully washed over every morning with water 
mixed with fresh cow-dung, in order to keep it cool and free from 



OF A FRONTIER STOCK FARMER. 55 

vermin — especially fleas^ which are apt to become an intolerable 
pest in sach mansions. 

The house was lighted by fonr square windows in front,-— one 
in each of the bed rooms, and two in the voorhuisy — and also by 
the door, which appeared to be shut only during the night. — The 
door consisted of reeds rudely fastened on a wicker frame, and 
was fixed to the door-posts by thongs of bullock*s hide. The 
windows were without glass, and were closed at night, each with 
an untanned quagga skin. There was neither stove nor chimney 
in any part of the dwelling-house ; but the operations of cooking 
were performed in a small circular hut of clay and reeds, which 
stood in front of it. The furniture of the sitting-room consisted 
of a couple of wooden tables, and a few chairs, stools, and wagon* 
chests ; an immense chum, into which all the milk saved from 
the sucking calves was daily poured, and churned every morning ; 
a large iron pot for boiling soap ; two or three wooden pitchers, 
hooped with brass, and very brightly scoured; a cupboard, 
exhibiting the family service of wooden bowls and trenchers, 
pewter tureens, brandy flasks, with a good array in phials of 
Dutch quack medicines. A tea vase, and brass tea-kettle heated 
by a chafing dish, — which, with a set of Dutch teacups and a 
large brass -clasped Dutch Bible, occupied a small table at which 
the mistress of the house presided, — completed the inventory. 
The bed-rooms, in which I more than once slept on future 
occasions, were furnished each with one or more large bedsteads 
or stretchers, without posts or curtains, but provided with good 
feather-beds, spread on elastic frames woven with thongs of 
bullock's hide, like a cane- bottomed chair. 

In a corner of the hall part of the carcase of a sheep was sus- 
pended from a beam; and I was informed that two sheep, and 
sometimes more, were daily slaughtered for family consumption ; 
the Hottentot herdsmen and their families, as well as the farmer's 
own household, being chiefiy fed upon mutton, at least during 
summer, when beef could not be properly cured. The carcases 
were hung up in this place, it appeared, chiefly to prevent waste 
by being constantly under the eye of the mistress, who, in this 



56 RESIDENCE AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY 

country, instead of the ancient Saxon title of * giver of bread,' 
might be appropriately called the ' giver of flesh.' Fleshy and not 
bread, is here the staff of life ; and the frontier colonists think it 
no more odd to have a sheep hanging in the voorhuisf than a 
farmer's wife in England would do to have the large household 
loaf placed for ready distribution on her hall table. At this very 
period, in fact, a pound of wheaten bread in this quarter of the 
colony was three or four times the value of a pound of an^mftl £ood. 

In regard to dress, there was nothing very peculiar to remark. 
That of the females, though in some respects more slovenly, 
resembled a good deal the costume of the rustic classes in Elngland 
thirty or forty years ago. The men wore long loose trowsers of 
sheep or goat-skin, tanned by their servants^ and made in the fiunily. 
A check shirt, a jacket of coarse firieze or cotton, according to the 
weather, and a broad-brimmed white hat, completed the costume. 
Shoes and stockings appeared not to be considered essential arti- 
cles of dress for either sex, and were, I found, seldom worn except 
when they went to church, or to merry-makings (vrolykheids)* 
A sort of sandals, however, are in common use, called veld-schoenem 
(country shoes), the fashion of which was> I believe, originally 
borrowed from the Hottentots. They are made of raw bullock's 
hide, with an upper-leather of dressed sheep or goat-skin, much 
after the same mode as the brogues of the ancient Scottish High- 
landers. 

Having previously heard that the industrious dame, the Juff- 
rouw Coetzer, sometimes manufactured leather dresses for sale, 
I bespoke a travelling jacket and trowsers of dressed springbok 
skin, the latter to be &ced with leopard-fdr, the price of which 
altogether was thirteen rix dollars, or about one pound sterling. 
I purchased also the skin of a very beautiful leopard, which one 
of the young Coetzers had lately shot, for half a pound of gun- 
powder. 

Old Coetzer and his family, like the remote Dutch colonists 
generally, were extremely inquisitive, asking a great variety of 
questions, some of them on very trifling matters. Englishmen 
are apt to feel annoyed by this practice, but without any sufficient 



OF A FRONTIER STOCK FARMER. 57 

reason ; for though it hetokens a lack of refinement, it is not at 
all allied to rudeness or impertinence ; it is simply the result of 
untutored curiosity in the manners of people living in a wild and 
thinly-inhabited country, to whom the sight of a stranger is a rare 
event, and by whom news of any description is welcomed with 
avidity. Instead, therefore, of haughtily or sullenly repelling their 
advances to mutual confidence, I readily answered all the ques- 
tions, including those that respected my own age, the number, 
names, and ages of my fiunily and relatives, the direction and 
extent of my present journey, and the like. In return, I plied them 
with similar and still more various interrogatories, to all of which 
they not only replied with the utmost openness, but seemed highly 
pleased with my frankness. In this manner I soon learned that 
my host had eight or ten brothers, all stout frontier graziers like 
himself, and all with numerous families. His own family consisted, 
(if I rightly recollect,) of six sons and as many daughters, several 
of whom were married and settled in the neighbourhood. Two of 
his sons, with their wives and families, were at present living at 
this place in cottages adjoining to his house. The old dame 
informed me that she was herself by birth a Jourdan, and was 
descended from one of the French Huguenot families, who settled 
in the colony after the revocation of the Edict of Nantz. Her 
grandfather, she said, could speak French ; but she herself knew 
no language but Dutch. Her manner and address, however, 
retained something of French urbanity and politeness, which con- 
trasted agreeably with the Batavian bluntness of her husband. 

Having exhausted the usual topics of country chat, I suggested 
a walk round the premises, and we sallied forth, accompanied by 
old Wentzel and his son Arend. They led us first to the orchard, 
which was of considerable extent, and contained a variety of fruit 
trees, all in a thriving state. The peach trees, which were now in 
blossom, were most numerous ; but there were also abundance of 
apricot, almond, walnut, apple, pear, and plum trees, and whole 
avenues of figs and pomegranates. The outward fence consisted 
of a tall hedge of quinces. There was also a fine lemon grove, 
and a few young orange trees. The latter require to be sheltered 

Dd 



38 RESIDEMCB AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY 

daring the winter, until thej hare attuned considerable size, the 
fro8t being apt to blight them in this upland ralley. All the other 
fruits are raised with ease; peach-trees often bearing finitthe 
third year after the seeds are put in the ground. From the want 
of care, however, or of skill in grafting, few of the fruits in this 
part of the colony are of superior sorts or of delicate flavour. The 
peaches especially are but indifferent ; but, as they are chiefly 
grown for making brandy, or to be used in a dried state, excel- 
lence of flavour is but little regarded. Some mulberry trees, 
which had been planted in front of the house, were large and 
flourishing, and produced, I was informed, abundance of fruit. 
These were not the wild or white mulberry, raised in Europe for 
feeding silkworms ; but the latter sort also thrive extremely weQ 
in most parts of the colony. 

The kitchen garden was very deficient in neatness, but con- 
tained a variety of useful vegetables. Onions were raised in great 
abundance, and of a quality fiilly equal to those of Spain. Pump- 
kins, cucumbers, musk and water melons, were cultivated in con- 
siderable quantities. The sweet potato was also grown here. 

Adjoining to the garden and orchard was a small but well kept 
vineyard, from which a large produce of very fine grapes is 
obtained, but these, as well as the peaches, are chiefly distilled 
into brandy. 

The whole of the orchard, vineyard, and garden ground, toge- 
ther with about twenty acres of com land adjoining, were irrigated 
by the waters of a small mountain-rill, which were collected and 
led down in front of the house by an artificial canal. This limited 
extent was the whole that could be cultivated on a farm comprising 
. about six thousand acres. But this is quite sufficient for the wants 
of a large family ; the real wealth of the &rm, so far as respects 
marketable commodities, consisting in the flocks and herds raised 
on its extensive pastures. This old Wentzel himself liinted — aSy 
shutting up a gap in the garden hedge with a branch of thorny 
mimosa, he led us out towards the kraals or cattle- folds, exclaim- 
ing, in a tone of jocund gratulation, while he pointed to a distant 
cloud of dust moving up the valley — < Maar daar koomt myn vee 



OF A FRONTIER STOCK FARMER. 59 



— de beste tuin I * (< But there come my cattle — the best garden I ') 
On approaching' the cattle kraals, I was struck by the great 
height of the principal fold, which was elevated fifteen or twenty 
feet above the level of the adjoining plain ; and my surprise was 
certainly not diminished when I found that the mound on the top 
of which the pen was constructed, consisted of a mass of hard 
solid dung, accumulated by the cattle of the farm being folded for 
a succession of years on the same spot. The sheep-folds, though 
not quite so elevated, and under the lee, as it were, of the bullock- 
kraal, were also fixed on the top of similar accumulations. The 
several folds (for those of the sheep and goats consisted of three 
divisions) were all fenced in with branches of the thorny mimosa, 
which formed a sort of rampart around the margin of the mounds 
of dung, and were carefully placed with their prickly sides out- 
wards, on purpose to render the inclosures more secure from the 
nocturnal assaults of the hyaenas, leopards, and jackals. Against 
all these ravenous animals the oxen are, indeed, quite able to 
defend themselves ; but the hyeenas and leopards are very destruc- 
tive to calves, foals, sheep, and goats, when they can break in 
upon them, which they sometimes do in spite of the numerous 
watch-dogs kept for their protection ; and the cunning jackal is 
not less destructive to the young lambs and kids. 

While we were conversing on these topics, the clouds of dust 
which I had observed approaching from three different quarters, 
came nearer, and I perceived that they were raised by two nume- 
rous flocks of sheep, and one large herd of cattle. First came the 
wethers, which are reared for the market, and are often driven by 
the butchers' servants even to Cape Town, seven hundred miles 
distant. These being placed in their proper fold, the flock of 
ewes, ewe-goats, and lambs, was next driven in, and carefully 
penned in another ; those having young ones of tender age being 
kept separate. And, finally, the cattle herd came rushing on pell* 
melly and spontaneously assumed their station upon the summit 
of their guarded mound ; the milch-cows only being separated, 
in order to be tied up to stakes within a small inclosure nearer 
the houses, where they were milked by the Hottentot herdsmen, 



^'0 RESIDENCE OF A FRONTIER FARHEK. 

after their calves, which were kept at homey had been pennitted 
to suck for a certain period. Not one of those cows, I was told, 
would allow herself to be milked until her calf had first been pot 
to her ; if the calf dies, of course there is an end of her milk for 
that season. About thirty cows were milked ; but the quantity 
obtained from them was scarcely so much as would be got from 
eight or ten good English cows. 

The farmer and his wife, with all their sons, dai]^hterB, daugh- 
ters-in-law, and grand-children, who were about the place, were 
assiduously occupied, while the herds and flocks were folding, in 
examining them as they passed in, and in walking through among 
them afterwards, to see that all was right. I was assured thst, 
though they do not very frequently count them, they can discover 
at once if any individual ox is missing, or if any accident has hap- 
pened among the flocks from beasts of prey or otherwise. This 
£Eiculty, though the result doubtless of peculiar habits of attention, 
is certainly very remarkable ; for the herd of cattle at this place 
amounted altogether to nearly 700 head, and the sheep and gvnts 
to about 5,000. This is considered a very respectable, but by no 
means an extraordinary stock for a Tarka grazier. 

Every individual of an African farmer's frimily, including even 
the child at the breast, has an interest in the welfrure of the flocks 
and herds. It is their custom, as soon as a child is bom, to set 
apart for it a certain number of the young live stock, which in- 
crease as the child grows up ; and which, having a particular mark 
regularly affixed to them, form, when the owner arrives at adult 
age, a stock sufficient to be considered a respectable dowry £ot a 
prosperous farmer's daughter, or to enable a young man, though 
he may not possess a single dollar of cash, to begin the world 
respectably as a Vee Boer, or grazier. 

After the folding of the cattle was over, my host showed us his 
corn-mill, which was of very small dimensions and simple con- 
struction. The water-wheel, which was driven horizontally by 
the little canal of irrigation on its passage to the orchard, was only 
about five feet in diameter, and the millstones not more than two. 
A slender iron axle, of which the lower end was fixed in the hort* 



VILLAGE OF CRADOCK. 61 

zontal water-wheel, passing through a small hole in the centre of 
the nether millstone, was mortised into the upper one, which bj 
this means was put in motion. The com was supplied by an 
orifice in the upper stone, and the flour conveyed by a little 
wooden spout into a leathern bag ; and this was the whole ma- 
chinery. I was informed it would grind about a bushel of wheat 
in eight hours. 

On returning to the house, the feet of all the family, com- 
mencing with Wentzel and his wife, were washed in succession 
by an old slave woman. Supper was then served up, consisting 
chiefly of mutton broiled and stewed, with excellent wheaten 
bread, butter, milk, and some dishes of vegetables and dried fruits. 
Supper (avond'Stuk) is the principal meal throughout the interior 
of the colony ; the only other regular meal being breakfast, which 
consists of nearly the same viands, and is taken about eight in the 
morning. Grace was said before and after meat by- one of the 
young girls, daughters of our host. 

My companion and I slept on feather-beds, spread on mats for 
us in the voorhuis, which is the usual dormitory allotted for 
strangers in houses of this description, where there are seldom 
spare beds or bed-rooms. On subsequent occasions, when I 
happened to spend a night at this house with my wife on our 
way to Cradock, we had a bed allotted to us in the principal 
sleeping chamber, old Wentzel and his wife occupying another 
bed in the same apartment. Some others of our neighbours, 
however, who had superior accommodations, such as Barend 
Bester on the Tarka, and William Prinslo (Groot Willem) of 
our own valley, always had a separate chamber for us, however 
numerous might be their guests. 

Next day, after an easy canter of about four hours through 
a more level country, generally covered with brown herbage 
resembling heath, and enlivened with a few ostriches and spring- 
boks, we reached the village of Cradock. This place, which was 
then the capital of an extensive sub-district of the same name 
(now included in the new district of Somerset), consisted of 
about thirty houses, with gardens and orchards watered by a 



62 RAVAGES OF HTJENAS. 

canal of irrigation from the Great Fish River. It was graced bj 
a decent-looking church; and boasted two small retail shops, 
where a variety of articles, and among others, tea, coffee, and 
sngar, could sometimes be purchased. The clergyman, and two 
or three other femilies of the viUage, were English. But we 
proceeded, without stopping, to Captain Harding's residence at 
Drie-Fonteinen (Three- Fountains), about half an hour's ride 
beyond the village. 

Here I met once more with the refined hospitality and 
domestic comforts of an English home; and spent the greater 
part of two days very agreeably with our intelligent magistrate 
and his family. Having obtained his opinion in regard to 
various points connected with my party and location, and received 
some valuable information relative to the frontier districts and 
the native tribes, I left Drie-Fonteinen on the 18th ; and, with 
the aid of my Hottentot guide, Dikkop Oray, having crossed the 
hills to the southward by the pass of the Bangberg (Fearful 
Mount), I descended into the valley where the Little Fish River 
has its sources, known by the name of Zwagershoek (i. e. Brother- 
in-law's Corner). Here, after galloping for some hours through 
tracts entirely destitute of wood, and thickly dotted over with 
ant-hillocks from two to four feet high, we reached, in a sheltered 
glen among steep hills, the house of Paul du Plessies, the field- 
cornet of the district, where I halted for the night. This man, 
I found, was an extensive breeder of horses, for which his lands 
were particularly well adapted, being exempt from the ravages of 
a disease which, in certain seasons, is very fatal to horses in many 
parts of the colony. He complained, however, and not without 
reason, that the swarms of hyaenas, with which the neighbouring 
mountains abound, were almost as bad as the horse-pestilence; 
for he had had not fewer than seventy foals destroyed hy these 
ravenous animals in the course of a single year. 

Next day I continued my journey down the Little Fish River. 
I passed many substantial farm-houses, with orchards, vineyards, 
and corn-fields, skirted by small plantations of European trees, 
chiefly oaks and poplars. I stopped to breakfast at one of them 



RURAL HOSPITALITY. 63 

(Barend Gryling's), according' to the custom of the country. 
There being no inns, travellers on horseback usually contrive, if 
possible, to arrive before meal time at a farm-house ; and, although 
entire strangers, are expected, as a matter of course, to take a 
seat at the table. Such is the universal custom, except along 
the great roads. To be deficient in this sort of hospitality in 
the remoter districts, would be held infamous ; and few but the 
Tery poorest boors, I found, would accept pecuniary remuneration 
for my own entertainment, though it was customary to make 
a regular charge for corn to my horses. A small present to the 
children appeared the most delicate mode of discharging such 
obligations, — which, after all, are not very onerous in a country 
where a whole sheep is only worth half a crown. The domestic 
accommodations of the farmers in this quarter were in general 
much superior to those of Wentzel Coetzer and other boon 
nearer the frontier line ; the country having been longer settled, 
and property considered more secure. 

On the 19th I reached the residence of Mr. Hart at Somerset ; 
then a great government farm, now a village and seat of the 
resident magistracy of the new district of that name. It lies at 
the southern base of the Boschberg range, with the Little Fish 
River in front. The mountain towers up immediately behind 
the village, to the height, apparently, of about 2000 feet, exhibit- 
ing a magnificent front, clothed with hanging woods of forest 
timber, and diversified with hoary rocks, and steep buttresses of 
green turf. After heavy rains, when a number of little cascades 
appear flaslting over the wooded cliffs, the front of this mountain 
18 superbly beautiful. About 600 acres of land, I found, were 
now under cultivation on Somerset Farm, of which the greater 
portion had consisted of a swamp (valei,) reclaimed and subjected 
to the plough by the talent and perseverance of Mr. Hart. 

After spending a week with my friendly countryman and his 
family, I returned home on the 27th ; having, in this excursion, 
made a circuit of about a hundred and seventy miles, through 
one of the best peopled and wealthiest tracts of our pastoral 
district. The distance from Somerset to Clifton is about ten 
hours' ride, or sixty English miles. 



M EXTRACTS FROM DIART. 

Mr. Hart, agreeably to a promise he had made me, speedily 
paid UH a risit at Glen-Lyndeiit and aided vs Tery benefiotlly 
with his experienced coansel in oar delibentioiis cm severd 
|Hiints of importance. The friendship of this ahle and actife 
man provefi indeed, both on this and on sabseqneDt oocasionsy of 
great advantage to oar party. 

Having decided npon accepting the altematire of haTingonr 
present Kication, enlarged by the extension of its boundary about 
three miles farther down the Talley, as proposed hj gOTemment, 
our o|>erBtion8 of ploughing, planting, sowing, &c. proceeded 
without interruption upon the same footing as hitherto. No 
event of extraordinary importance occurred for many months; 
but a few further extracts from my diary may serre to give the 
reader some notion of the sort of incidents which diversified the 
daily routine of our little settlement. 



Oct. Ifit. Arrival of the Somerset wagon with flour, seed- 
corn, &c. At Mr. SydserfTs request, I discharged his servant 
Sandy from the party, gave him a pass, counter-signed by the 
duputy-landdrost) and sent him off with the Somerset wagon 
towards (iraham's Town. This lad has turned out to be at once 
a fool uiul a blackguard, and utterly irreclaimable. 

4th. A sharp frost last night blighted all our early potatoes, 
])umpkinfl, melons, kidney beans, &c. It appears we had sown 
Homo of our seeds too early. 

8th. (Sunday.) A troop of about twenty quaggas galloped 
through the corner of our gardens during divine service. 

9th. A herd of hartebeests passed close to our huts, pursued 
by a pack of six wild-dogs (hycBna venaticd). Fired at the 
latter, but without effect. 

This day, Mr. John Rennie being out hunting on Hyndhope 
Fells, full in with two wild Bushmen, dressed in sheep skins. 
They ran off on his approach, but made no demonstration of 
hostility. He came upon six hyaenas devouring a hartebeest, 
and brought me its skull and horns. 

1 1th. Visited by three boors from the Tarka, Jourdan, Eras- 



EXTRACTS FROM DIARY. 65 

mus, and De Beer, desirous of exchanging horses and cattle for 
guns and ammunition. Completed my map of the location. 

16th. Surprised by a slight fall of snow. Weather chill and 
cloudy. The laughing hyaena heard near the folds last night. 
The sound truly horrible. 

21st. Fine weather. KiUed a large yellow snake. 

23rd. Received a visit from our district clergyman, the Rev. 
J. Evans, of Cradock. He brought a packet from the landdrost, 
conveying letters from the colonial secretary, assuring me of the 
continued support of government, and giving us the agreeable 
intelligence that a party of emigrants from the West of Scotland 
were speedily expected out, who would be located close beside us. 
Received also very pleasant letters from Scotland, from Dr. 
Philip, and from our parted comrade Mr. Elliott. Religious 
service in the evening by Mr. Evans. All much pleased and 
comforted. 

24th. Mr. G. Rennie, who at my request had gone with a 
party of Hottentots to explore the country beyond the mountains 
towards the Koonap River, returned with a very favourable 
report of it. Abundance of wood, water, and rich pasturage. 
He saw a great deal of large game, and the recent traces of 
elephants. Shot a gnu and hartebeest. 

Nov. 1st. The weather warm and serene, like the finest sum- 
mer weather in England. Two snakes and a large scorpion 
killed. Turtle doves, touracoos, thrushes, finches, and other 
birds of beautiful plumage become numerous. 

6th. Violent storm of thunder. The peals fearfully loud. 
Magnificent clouds at sunset. 

15th. A tiger>wolf {h^^ena crocutd) broke into the kraal last 
nighty and killed several sheep. 

22nd. A wolf-trap constructed, with the aid of the Hottentots, 
of large stones and timber. 

29th. A wolf (hy<Bna) caught in the trap. 

80th. Another wolf caught, but breaks out and escapes. 

Dec 4th. A very heavy rain for three days, swells the river 
to an unfordable size. All the dry beds of torrents filled with 
furious floods. 



66 CROPS DK8TR0TXD BY MILDKW. 

7th. Weather again warm and serene. Mr. G. Rennie kOk 
another wild boar at Glen-Yair. 

1 1th. Another wolf (hyana) caught in the trap. 

19th. My brother John finds stone fit for mill-stones, and, 
with the aid of one of the Hottentots, begins to construct a small 
mill on the model of Wentzel Coetzer's. 

26th. Visit from the chief magistrate of our district, Captsin 
Stockenstrom, accompanied bj Mr. Hemming. Very agreeable 
conference. 

29th. My fether narrowly escapes being gored by a fiiiioos 
ox. Blight appears in the wheat. 

30th. Receive a large packet of letters and newspapers from 
Scotland. All deeply interested. This is the first packet of 
British newspapers that has reached ns. 



Nothing more remarkable than occurrences such as the aboTS 
took place at our settlement for several months ; with the excep- 
tion of the destruction of our ripening corn by a sort of mildew 
or blight, which first appeared in the colony in the preceding 
season, and which continued for several successive years to 
destroy almost totally the wheat crops of the British settlen* 
This was a great discouragement to us ; but as the government, 
in consequence of this calamity, continued to supply all the 
settlers with rations of flour for six months longer, our partj 
did not suffer from it any material privation. 



67 



CHAPTER V. 

Insurrection of Frontier Boors in 1815— Cew^ of the Hottentot, 
JSooy — Oppression of the Native Race — Conduct and Faie of 
Frederick Sezuidenhout — Views of the Insurgents — Failure 
of their Schemes — Their Surrender — Pursuit of the Fugitives 
— Desperate Resistance of the Rezuidenhouts — Tried and 
Punishment of the Prisoners. 

I HAVE previously alluded to an insurrection of Dutch- African 
Boors which broke out in 18 15, and of which the sub-district (Jteld- 
cometcy) of Bayian*s River was the focus. As our location con- 
sisted of lands which had been forfeited by some of these insurgents^ 
and as the facts of the case will illustrate in a striking manner the 
character of the frontier colonists, and the civil condition both of 
this class and of their coloured dependents, only a few years before 
our arrival, I shall here briefly relate the history of the affair. I 
collected the authentic details partly from the printed report, in 
Dutch, of a Special Commission appointed to try the criminals *, 
and partly from the accounts I received from the magistrates of 
the district, and from several of the boors themselves who had 
been implicated in the conspiracy. 

Some time in 1814, a Hottentot named Booy appeared at the 
magistrate's office at Cradock, and complained of the oppressive 
conduct of Frederick Bezuidenhout, a Dutch- African colonist who 
resided at the place now called Cameron's Cleugh, on Bavian's 
River. Booy, it appeared, had been for several years in the 
service of this Boor; but when the term of his contract had 
expired, Bezuidenhout peremptorily refused either to permit him 
to depart, or to remove what little property he had on the place. 



* Sententie in de zaak van den Landdrost van Uitenbage, &c. in Cas Crimineel, 
contra Hendrik Fredrick Prinslo [and 38 other persons] — Kaap de Goede Hoop, 
1816. 



68 OPPRESSION OF THE NATIVE RACE. 

Captain Stockenstrom, who at that time filled the office of depatj^ 
landdrost of the suh-district of Cradock, gave the complainant a 
letter to Opperman the field-cornet of Bavian's River, directing 
that officer to inquire into the case ; and in the event of the 
Hottentot's statement proving correct, to take care that his 
property was delivered to him, and that he was allowed to remoye 
unmolested. The field-comet having gone to Bezuidenhont's 
place with Booy, found the Hottentot's statement to he perfectly 
correct. The Boor at once admitted the hcts ; hut instead <tf 
yielding obedience to the magistrate's order, he boldly declared 
that he considered this interference between him (a free burgher) 
and his Hottentot, to be a presumptuous innovation upon hii 
rights, and an intolerable usurpation of tyrannical authority. He 
told the field-comet that he set at defiance both himself and the 
magistrate who had sent him on this officious errand, and, to give 
ferther emphasis to his words, he fell violently upon poor Booy, 
gave him a severe beating, and then bade him go and tell the 
civil authorities that he would treat them in the same maimer if 
they should dare to come upon his grounds to claim the property 
of a Hottentot. 

In elucidation of Bezuidenhont's conduct on this occasion, it 
is to be remarked that, up to a comparatively recent period, the 
Hottentot population within the limits of the colony had been 
universally subjected to a state of the most degrading thraldom 
under the African boors. They were, in fact, left entirely in the 
power of the white colonists ; and in the remoter districts, their' 
own limbs and lives, as well as the disposal of their children, were 
practically altogether at their masters' mercy. In 1809, the Earl 
of CaledoD, who at that time administered the government of the 
Cape, had made a benevolent attempt to rescue this class of men 
irom their abject and unprotected condition, by issuing a procla- 
mation, which, by one of its provisions, deprived the colonists of 
the power, so long exercised as a legal and unquestionable right, 
of retaining the children of the Hottentots in bondage, under the 
name of apprenticeship, until their twenty-fifth year, and the 
adults^ under other pretexts, often for life. This proclamation 



OPPRESSION OF THE NATIVE RACE. 69 

contained several other clauses, framed unqnestionably with an 
anxious desire to improve the condition and protect the persons 
and property of this people. Considering the state of public 
feeling, and the progress of just views on such subjects, perhaps 
Lord Caledon*s proclamation was, at thai period, an effort in the 
cause of justice and humanity, nearly as great as the noble ordi- 
liance issued by General Bourke nineteen years afterwards. But, 
unhappily for the Hottentots and for the colony, many of the 
best provisions of Lord Caledon*8 enactment were neutralised by 
coercive clauses, admitted at the suggestion of certain provincial 
functionaries, to conciliate the feelings and serve the selfish views 
of the privileged classes, and which had a practical operation 
which his lordship most undoubtedly never intended to sanction. 
What was still more deplorable. Sir John Cradock, who succeeded 
Lord Caledon in the government, permitted himself to be so far 
influenced by the representations of the colonists that he rescinded, 
by another proclamation in 1812, the most important clause of 
Lord Caledon's enactment — that, namely, which secured to the 
oppressed natives a right to their own children; and thus 
re-established the iniquitous claim of the colonists to force them 
into apprenticed servitude, and sealed for sixteen years longer the 
degradation of the race. 

In this state of things, and with provincial functionaries in general 
deeply imbued with the feelings of the other colonists, the pro- 
tection of the native race from oppression was out of the question. 
When the local magistrate happened to be, as in the present case, 
a man of enlightened views and determined character, a vigorous 
attempt might occasionally be made to interfere in defence of the 
natives, so far as the colonial law extended its feeble and faltering 
arm. But the indignant resentment with which such interference 
was repelled, clearly evinces how seldom it had hitherto been 
efficiently exerted. In regard to Bezuidenhout it is, moreover, 
to be recollected that, ever since the earlier days of colonial 
anarchy, which Mr. Barrow has so forcibly depicted, when the 
Boors used to murder and mutilate the Hottentots at discretion, 
be and his comrades had resided on this wild and secluded part of 



70 CONDUCT AND FATE OF 

the frontier, where colonial legislation in regard to the aborigines 
had reached them only by hearsay, and where sach terms as the 
* rights of the natives' were still treated with unqualified contempt 
The angry defiance, therefore, with which this rude back-settler 
met the magistrate's intenrention in behalf of Booy^ and the 
warmth with which his resentful feelings, €is an insulted frm 
burgher y were sympathized with by a large portion of the neigh, 
bonring colonists, exhibits, in a light equally^ striking and instrue- 
tive, the frightful perversion of moral sentiment in the dominant 
class by the uncontrolled exercise of arbitrary power, and the 
deplorable condition of the natives who lay prostrate under their 
feet. 

Upon receiving the field-comet's report of Bezuidenhout's 
outrageous conduct, the magistrate instituted legal proceedings 
against him before the local court. But the Boor treated the 
regular summonses that were delivered to him with the same 
audacious contempt with which he had repelled the monitory 
intervention of the field-comet, even threatening with personal 
violence the judicial messengers. The case was thus brought 
regularly before the Judges of Circuit, at Graaff-Rein^ty in 1815; 
when the defendant maintaining the same contumacy, and refusing 
to appear, he was sentenced to imprisonment for contempt of 
court. 

It now became necessary to act with vigour, or else to expose 
the laws and courts of justice to the utter contempt of the colonists. 
The under-sheriff was therefore despatched by Captain Stocken* 
Strom, who had recently been appointed chief magistrate (landdrost) 
of the district, to take Bezuidenhout into custody ; and as this 
audacious burgher had sworn never to surrender himself, the 
officer of justice was accompanied by a military escort to protect 
him in the execution of his duty. As soon as Bezuidenhout saw 
this party approaching his house, with the dogged determination 
characteristic of his race, he betook himself to a cave in a huge 
rock overhanging the river, into which he had previously con* 
veyed a large quantity of powder and ball, together with a supply 
of provisions, to stand a siege ; and, compelling two young men, 



FREDERICK BEZUIOENHOUT. 71 

who liyed with him, to accompany him with their arms, he com- 
menced a brisk fire upon the under-sheriflf and the military. The 
place was then surrounded ; and, as the desperate boor would 
listen to no parley, but continued to shoot resolutely at every 
man who came within reach of his long-barrelled elephant gun 
(roer)y a fire of musketry was opened against the garrison of the 
cavern ; the besiegers ensconcing themselves as well as they 
could behind the large stones and ledges of rock that lay around* 
At length, in Bezuidenhout's eagerness to get a good aim at one 
of the assailants, his person became so much exposed that a ball, 
fired by one of the Hottentot soldiers from the opposite side of 
the river, took e£fect, and killed him on the spot. Upon this, his 
two companions (one of whom was a Bastaard or Mulatto) 
surrendered themselves. They were carried to Graaf-Rein^t, 
and committed to gaol, but discharged after a short imprisonment. 
■ This affair excited a very great sensation in the country. A 
numerous assemblage of the Dutch- African colonists of Bavian's 
River, Tarka, and the adjoining sub-districts, was held at the 
funeral of the deceased burgher. Great excesses of inebriety took 
place ; inflammatory speeches were delivered ; and several of the 
most violent of these Colonial ' Patriots,' as they termed them- 
selves, took a solemn oath over the corpse of Bezuidenhout to 
revenge his death. They swore to hang Landdrost Stockenstrom, 
and the Field* Comet Opperman, whom he had first sent to 
interfere on behalf of the Hottentot Booy, and to drive the 
English troops and English laws over Bruintjes-hoogte. Nor 
did these feelings of animosity and these insane boastings evapo- 
rate with the fumes of the brandy with which, in appropriate 
libations, they had celebrated the obsequies of their hero. Soon 
afterwards, a meeting of the disaffected took place on the Tarka, 
under the direction of a man named Hendrick Prinslo, at which 
their grievances under the laws enacted for the protection of the 
native race, and the practicability of throwing off the yoke, were 
more fully discussed. A conspiracy was then entered into to 
bring about a general insurrection, and to call in the aid of the 
Cafifeis to assist them in expelling the English from the eastern 



72 VIEWS OF THE INSURGENTS. 

|)art8 of the colony. The recollection which manj of these men 
retained of the state of anarchy in which this part of the country 
had been kept for several years at the commencement of the 
present century, encourag^ed them in the hope that they shouU 
be enabled, by means of the existing excitement^ to restore at 
least a similar state of afFeurs, if not to achieve their entire inde- 
pendence of the English government. 

These points having been agreed upon, a letter was drawn up 
at this meeting, and addressed to one Krugel, residing at Rhinos- 
terberg in the northern part of the colony, on whom g^^^at reliance 
was placed by them, calling upon him to excite the inhabitants of 
that frontier to take up arms. This letter was drawn up by one 
Bothma, who had formerly been banished the colony for fbrgeiy. 
It was then signed by Prinslo, and confided to the cliarge of two 
brothers of the name of Mnller, who had been admitted to the 
meeting. The MuUers, however, instead of conveying the letter 
to Krugel, proceeded with it to the Field-Commandant Van Wyk, 
a man of decided loyalty, who, upon ascertaining the nature of 
its contents, hastened to Cradock^ and placed it in the hands of 
the deputy-landdrost, Mr. Van de Graafif. An express was des- 
patched by this magistrate to the nearest military officer, Captain 
Andrews, at Van-Aard*s Post, on the Great Fish River, who 
immediately sent a party of dragoons to seize Hendnk Prinslo. 
They succeeded in surprising and arresting him in his father's 
house, near the site of the present village of Somerset, before he 
or any of his party had the least suspicion that their proceedings 
had become known to the authorities. 

The conspirators, though greatly disconcerted by the arrest of 
their principal leader, did not however, abandon their enteiprisei 
A deputation was sent to the CaflTer chief Gaika, with instmctionB 
to propose an alliance between him and the insurgents, for the 
purpose of expelling the English from the eastern districts. As 
a bait to tempt the cupidity of the African magnate, they offered, 
in the event of success, to leave in his possession the ZureveU 
(Albany), and other tracts of territory west of the Great Fish 
River, firom which the CafFers had been recently expelled by the 



FAILURE OF THEIR SCHEMES. 73 

British troops ; whilst they (the Boors) would occupy the country 
on the Kat and Koonap streams, to the eastward. Gaika, how- 
ever, showed himself too good a politician to be thus cajoled by his 
old antagonists. He told the deputies that he could not beliere 
the colonists were serious in their proposal ; that he suspected 
their design was merely to decoy the Cafifers into the open plains, 
with the yiew of more e£fectually destroying them ; but that, if 
they really meant what they said, he considered them to be veiry 
foolish men, as there was no probability of their succeeding in such 
an attempt ; and that, finally, for his own part, he had no inclina- 
tion to place himself, like a silly deer, between a lion on the one 
side and a wolf on the other (the English and the Dutch). He 
absolutely refused, therefore, to take any part in the quarrel. 

This was not the only quarter in which the anticipations of 
the insurgents were doomed to be disappointed. Their design to 
raise the northern fi*ontier through the means of Krugel had 
miscarried. In their own vicinity they were scarcely more suc- 
cessful. The Field-Commandant Van Wyk, a man of talent and 
intrepidity, and of great influence in the district, called out the 
burghers of his division (the Tarka) on military duty, in order to 
have them under his own eye. While thus assembled, Landdrost 
Stockenstrom, who, on the first intelligence of the intended revolt, 
had posted to the disturbed district, appeared in the midst of 
them, and harangued them with so much effect on the madness 
as well as the criminality of those who were treasonably attempting 
to organize an armed resistance to the government, that the 
evil-disposed were daunted, and the wavering confirmed in their 
loyalty. 

Such was the effect of these combined causes, the premature 
discovery of their designs, the arrest of their principal leader, the 
refusal of Gaika to co-operate, and the energy of the local autho- 
rities, that the insurgents, when they drew together, could not 
muster more than sixty burghers ; and of these the greater pro- 
portion were inexperienced hot-headed young men, too ignorant 
to be able to form any adequate conception of the power of the 
government which they had thus dared to defy, but which they 
were totally incompetent to resist. 

E 



74 THEIR SURRENDER. 

This band rode down to Van- Aard's, the nearest military poet, 
and demanded the release of their captured leader, Prinslo; bat 
as Captain Andrews did not think fit to comply, they retired 
without venturing upon an assault, and took possession of a pass 
which commands the valley of the Great Fish River, at tiie 
eastern termination of the Boschberg range, immediately below 
the influx of the Bavian's liiver. Here they were met, a few 
days afterwards, by a detachment of British troops, hastily col- 
lected by Colonel Cuyler firom the frontier garrisons, accomptnied 
by a body of their own countrymen, the burgher militia, under 
their local oflGicers. As Colonel Cuyler*s force advanced up thebill 
called Slaghters-nek, on the brow of which the insurgents wen 
posted, the latter were seen shaking hands together, as a mutual 
pledge to fight to the last ; and there were doubtless men among 
them, and especially some of the near relatives of the deceased 
Bezuidenhout, of a character sufficiently desperate to dare any 
extremity. But while they were levelling their long guns to 
take deadly aim at the leaders of the advancing troops, and voioeB 
were heard loudly calling out in Dutch to the loyalist burghers 
to separate themselves firom the military, in order to prevent 
bloodshed between brethren, Captain (afterwards Colonel) Fraaer, 
ordering his men to halt, advanced alone to hold a parley with 
the rebels. A gun was levelled, and a finger was on the trigger> 
to seal the fate of this brave and generous officer ; but the weapon 
was struck down by William Prinslo — my future acquaintance 
Groot Willem, Fraser called to their leaders and others whom 
he knew personally, and who loved and respected him. Thsj 
gathered round him. He addressed them with energj" on the 
folly of their attempting to resist the overwhelming force whidi, 
from more than one quarter, was advancing towards them ; and 
on the insanity of shutting themselves out from all hope of mercy 
by the fruitless shedding of blood. They were touched and con- 
vinced by his address. They wavered in their resolution ; and, 
after a brief consultation, all agreed to surrender, — ^with Ae 
exception of five of the more desperate delinquents, who, seeing 
that < the game was up,* mounted their horses, and fled up tiie 
Bavian*8 River. These men were, Hans Bezuidenhout, brother 



RESISTANCE OF THE BEZUIDENHOUTS. 75 

to the deceased Frederick ; Coraelius Faber, his brother-in-law ; 
Theunis de Klerk ; and Stephanas and Abraham Bothma ; all 
deeply concerned in organizing the insurrection. The rest of the 
band delivered themselves up to Colonel Ciiyler, who disarmed 
them, and marched them down to Uitenhage, to wait the orders 
of the Government. 

Meanwhile, Captain Fraser was despatched with a party of 
Hottentot dragoons, to arrest the rebels who had fled. Bezui- 
denhout and Faber, who resided near the source of the Bavian's 
River*, yoked their wagons, and putting their fstmilies and 
Taluables into them, drove out of the valley and across the upland 
country towards the frontier, accompanied by the two Bothmas, 
and carrying with them their flocks and herds. Captain Fraser 
overtook them on the northern side of the Winterberg, upon one 
of the sources of the Tarka River; and, before they were aware 
of his approach, had placed his men in such a position as to 
intercept and surround them. Faber, who was riding in advance 
of his friends, in search of a convenient path for the wagons, first 
perceived the troops, and turned to give the alarm ; but another 
detachment appearing behind, the unhappy fugitives saw that 
escape was impossible. Faber then alighted, and levelled his gun 
to fire on the party nearest him — but received at that moment a 
ball through both shoulders, and was taken prisoner. The Both- 
taaa were also seized without offering any serious resistance. 
But Hans Bezuidenhout, with a desperate courage, similar to 
that of his brother Frederick, deliberately placed himself by the 
side of Jiis wagons, and opposed, single-handed, the whole force 
that sarrounded him. He was repeatedly and urgently invited 
to surrender, but obstinately rejected all parley ; and a soldier 
who approached him with a message was laid dead on the spot. 
His wife, a sister of Faber's, was an Amazon woii;hy of such a 



* Thej occupied lands afterwards included in the Scotch Location. Bezuiden- 
hout resided at the spot now called Craig-Rennie ; and Faber had his kraal 
altenmtely at Clifton and Eildon. They lived in rude reed huts, and^ excepting a 
mull vineyard planted by Bezuidenhout, had scarcely made any attempt to culti- 
vate the soil. 

E 2 



76 TRIAL AND PUNISHMSKT 

mate. Assisted by her son (a lad of fourteen yean of age) slie 
loaded seven muskets as fietst as her husband could fire them off 
against the enemy, exclaiming *^ Let us never be taken alive I 
let us die here together I" After the soldier fell, a volley was 
poured in upon them, which severely wounded both Beziiidenhoiit 
and his wife ; but they still continued to fight with undiminisbed 
obstinacy, until at last a mortal shot finished the career of the 
former, and the wife, fiiint firom &tigue and the loss of blood, 
was incapable of fiurther resistance. The conduct of this woman 
astonished every one present. Though desperately wounded, 
such were her fiiry and firmness that she pertinaciously rejected 
all assistance firom the military surgeon, who had come to drees 
Captain Fraser s arm, which had been accidently fractured just 
before the skirmish. Her son, a bold spirited lad, who had most 
courageously assisted his &ther in the conflict, was also severely 
wounded; but both he and the Amazonian mother ultimately 
recovered.% 

The sequel of the affair may be told in few words. A Special 
Commission of the Court of Justice was sent up to Uitenhage. 
to try the prisoners. Thirty-nine were capitally convicted ; six 
were condemned to death ; and the rest to minor punishments. 
Five were executed on the 9th of March, 1816, at Van-Aard's 
Post, where they had first appeared in open rebellion ; namely, 
Hendrik Prinslo, Stephanus Bothma, Faber, De EJerk, and 
Abraham Bothma. The sixth prisoner, Krugel, was transported 
for life. The rest were condemned to witness the execution of 
their comrades; after which some of them were set at liberty; 
and the others were punished by fine, forfeiture, imprisonment, 
or banishment ftom the frontier districts, according to their less 
or greater share of criminality in these transactions. 

The Dutch- African inhabitants of the Tarka and of the lower 
part of Bavian*s River, by whom our location was on three sides 
environed, consisted, in a great measure, of the persons who had 
been engaged in this wicked and foolish rebellion, or their hxxalj 
connections, of the names of Erasmus, Prinslo, Vandemest, 
Bezuidenhout, Labuscagne, Engelbrecht, Bothma, Klopper, 



OF THE PRISONERS. 77 

Malan, De Klerk, Van Dyk, &c. They had, however, received 
a lesson not likely to be soon forgotten ; and we found them 
very submissive subjects to the Government, and inoffensive 
neighbours so far as we were concerned. How fax their feelings 
and conduct in regard to the coloured natives still require 
improvement, will afterwards appear. 



78 



CHAPTER VI. 

Disheartening Occurrences ai the heginnmg of\S2\ — Siccmnm 
with Mr. Hart — Flocks of Springboks — Desolate PUsms^ 
Zureberg Mountains — Magnyicent Scenery — HaufUs of^ 
Elephant — Valleif of the White River'-Moravian Settlemmii 
ofJEnon — Anecdotes of the Caffer Wars — African Forests^ 
Elephant Sagacity — Return across the Mountai$u — Account 
of the Slaughter of the elder Stockenstrom on the Zureberg 
by the Caffers. 

The year 1821 began rather gloomily at Glen-Ljiideii. In 
the first place, the whole of our wheat crops were destroyed by 
the rust or mildew. Then a severe drought, which had com- 
menced in December, lasted more than three months ; so that 
the pastures were parched up; the river ceased to flow, except 
near its sources ; the irrigation of our gardens and orchards wm 
interrupted, and many of the young trees and other plants 
destroyed. About the same time we received information that 
the party of 500 Highlanders, who were expected out to occi^y 
the country between us and the new Caffer frontier, had, in 
consequence of some untoward circumstances, entirely abandoned 
their intention of emigrating to the Cape ; and, to crown oar 
disappointments, the melancholy intelligence soon afterwards 
reached us, that the other Scottish party, which sailed from the 
Clyde on the Idth of October, 1820, had perished miserably near 
the equator, by their vessel, the Abeona transport, being destroyed 
by fire. Out of 140 of those unfortunate emigrants, only sixteen 
souls escaped ; who, being picked up in their boats by a vessel 
homeward bound, bad returned to Scotland. These concurrent 
disasters, crowding upon us all at once, greatly disheartened most 
of our party ; and I was urged by some of them to apply to the 
government to remove us to Albany, since, owing to the fiulure 
of the other Scottish parties, we would otherwise be left quite 



EXCURSION WITH MR. HART. 79 

isolated among the rude Dutch- African Boors, on this remote 
and exposed part of the frontier. I prevailed upon all the 
families, however, to give the place a longer trial ; and the dis- 
continuance of the drought in the end of March, together with 
the arrival of a corporal and five men of the cape corps (Hottentot 
soldiers), whom, at my request, the acting governor had kindly 
sent for the protection of our settlement, in lieu of the district 
Hottentots, contributed not a little to the restoration of confidence 
and satisfaction. 

Desirous of extending my knowledge of the colony and of the 
various classes of the population, I availed myself of the feeling 
of security afforded by the presence of our new military guard, to 
leave the location at this period, in order to accompany Mr. Hart 
on a journey which he had occasion to make through a part of the 
country very seldom traversed even by the older colonists. 

Leaving Somerset on the 25th of March with a Hottentot 
attendant, we pursued our journey over extensive plains still 
Inarched by severe drought, and undulating heights clothed with 
a brown and scanty herbage, and sprinkled over with numerous 
herds of springboks — the cmtUope euchore of naturalists. In the 
earlier part of this day's route, near the banks of the Little Fish 
River, so numerous were those herds that they literally speckled 
the figure of the country, as fsur as the eye could reach ; insomuch 
that we calculated we had sometimes within view not less than 
twenty thousand of these beautiful animals. As we galloped on, 
they bounded off continually on either side, with the light and 
sportive velocity from which they derive their colonial appellation. 
They were probably part of one of the great migratory swarms 
which, after long- continued droughts, sometimes inundate the 
colony from the northern wastes. 

After passing the flocks of antelopes, the country became still 
more waste and dreary, and the noon-day sun flamed fiercely down 
upon us firom a cloudless firmament. The monotonous landscape 
extended round us far and wide, enlivened only now and then by 
a few of the larger fowls of the country ; such as the white vulture, 
wheeling high over head in the clear sky ; the secretary bird, 



80 THE ZUREBBRG. 

walking awkwardly about, with its long feathered legs like blad 
pantaloons, searching for its fevonrite prey, the snakes which 
infest the dry-parched land ; and the stately paauw (or wild pea^ 
cock), a species of bastard, about twice the size of a tnikey, and 
esteemed the richest flavoured of all the African feathered game. 
These, and a few ostriches in the distance, were the only liyin^ 
creatures we saw after we lost sight of the springboks, except the 
numerous lizards, green, yellow, brown, and speckled, which lay 
basking on almost every stone and ant-hill that dotted the sultry 
waste. No rain having Mien here for many months, the country 
was wholly parched up and desolate, and consequently deserted 
both by the smaller birds and by herbivorous animals. The deq» 
melancholy silence was unbroken, sa^e by our own voices and the 
sound of our horses* feet ; even the hum of the wild-bee and the 
chirring of the grasshopper were unheard. 

At length, after a toilsome ride of about fiAy miles, during the 
latter half of which we had not found a single fountain, or pool, 
or running brook, to assuage our burning thirst, we reached about 
sunset the hovel of a Dutch-African boor, on the side of a rill 
that gushed, cool and limpid, from a savage-looking chasm of the 
Zureberg ; the mountain towering overhead in precipitous crags, 
which echoed to the bleating of the folded flocks, and the loud 
barking of twenty or thirty watch-dogs. Here we were received 
with all the hospitality which the inhabitants of a wigwam, con- 
structed of a few poles and reeds, could exercise. We supped on 
mutton and potatoes dressed with wild honey, and slept on a mat of 
rushes stretched on the floor, covered by a blanket of tanned lamb- 
skin with the wool on it. 

Next morning, at an early hour, we ascended the first ridge of 
the Zureberg, by a steep and rugged footpath, worn by the boon* 
cattle when driven to the upland pastures. On reaching the sum- 
mit, which at this place is probably not more than 1,500 ieet 
above the level of the plains we had just crossed, we looked back, 
and beheld the steep front of the Boschberg mountain, stretching 
like a huge irregular rampart across the horizon about fifty miles 
behind; while, farther to the north-east, the loftier mountains 



THE ZUREBERG. 81 

near the Caffer frontier, the Kahaherg, the Didimai the Luheri, 
and the giant Winterberg, appeared, towering one beyond the 
other, distinct and well-defined in the clear blue sky, at the 
distance of seventy, eighty, and a hundred miles*. The atmo- 
sphere in this climate is generally so dry and free from vapours 
that large objects are seen distinctly at a very great distance, and 
therefore to European eyes often appear to be much nearer than 
they really are. 

Turning our faces to the southward, we continued our journey 
across the successive ridges of the Zureberg, which extended 
before us nearly on the same level, but intersected by deep ravines, 
whose broken and stony declivities detained and wearied us 
exceedingly. The summits of the ridges were often almost fiat, 
and covered with long, coarse, wiry grass, of the sort called sour 
(whence the names Zureberg and Zureveld) ; being of such an 
acidulent quality that sheep and cattle will not eat it without 
great reluctance, nor can they be safely fed upon it without fre- 
quent changes to more wholesome and nutritious pasturage. From 
this cause, perhaps, the narrow glens of this range, though suffi- 
ciently well watered, were almost totally uninhabited. In a tract 
of about twenty miles we only found one farm-house. Even the 
larger wild game appeared to be scarce on those elevated pastures ; 
^ut this was probably owing much more to the incessant pursuit 
of the huntsman than their aversion to the coarse herbage. 

Unprofitable as they appear, these alpine wastes have yet their 
uses and their features of attraction. They serve to collect the 
clouds which feed the fountaius and streams that water the adja- 
cent plains and valleys, without which the country would be alto- 
gether a desert. They were still frequented by several species 
of beautiful wild animals, which in former years had been far 
more numerous, — such as the quagga, the zebra, the hart^beest, 



* The spot where I crossed the Zureberg on this occasion is not included in my 
little map, being considerably to the westward of that part of the ridge which 
approaches New Yearns River and Zwart- Water, and which we had crossed in our 
jonmey to the interior from Algoa Bay. 



82 MAOKIFICENT SCBNERT. 

reebok, steenbok, klipspringper, oiibi, &c. The rocky raTiiies also 
were inhabited by multitudes of baboons, and by the das or conej. 
Three kinds of partridge, two of bastard, and a variety of smaller 
birds, frequented the tracts of lank grass already mentioned. On 
the few straggling trees which grew here and there by the margins 
of the brooks in the deep and silent glens, appeared the pendulous 
nests of the weaver-bird ; and several species of eagles and &!• 
cons were seen hovering over head, or shooting from cli£P to cliff 
across the valleys. Among other curious and rare plants ^idiieh 
we found in one of the most sterile ravines oi those mountains, 
was the Hottentot bread-tree, a species of palm, which grows to 
the height of eight or ten feet, and produces a sort of fruit, whicb 
I was told the natives pound into a paste and eat roasted. Tfaii 
plant was now in blossom, the flower rising from the top of the 
stem like a large cone or cauliflower, encircled by broad fan-shaped 
leaves. The tabular summits too of these hills were frequently 
covered, for an extent of many acres, with a profusion of tall 
liliaceous flowers, which in spring-time bepaint the whole ground 
with their rich blue or scarlet blossoms. The region, therefor^ 
however unprofitable for the occupation of civilised man, is not 
without its appropriate inhabitants, nor devoid of utility and 
beauty in the beneficent arrangements of a creation where nothing 
— not even the sterile desert or naked rock — is placed without 
design, or left utterly unproductive. The aspect of this moun* 
tain-tract, and the obvious similarity of the country generally, in 
climate and productions, to ancient Palestine, recalled vividly to 
my recollection the following passages of that fine sacred poem, 
the hundred and fourth psalm : — 

'< He sendeth the springs into the valleys which run among the 
hills. 

<' They give drink to every beast of the field : the wild asses 
quench their thirst. 

" By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, 
which sing among the branches. 

<< He watereth the hills from his chambers : the earth is satisfied 
with the fruit of thy works. 



MAGNIFICENT SCENERY. 83 

*^ The high hills are a refiige for the wild goats (antelopes ?) 
and the rocks for the conies. 

<< The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat 
from God. 

*^ O Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou 
made them all : the earth is full of thy riches." 

Pursuing our journey, the mountains before us became more 
lof^y and desolate, and the rugged path, tracked out only by 
quaggas and antelopes, more intricate and difficult. We were 
forced frequently to alight, and to lead our horses, or drive them 
before us, through the rocky defiles, and along the dangerous 
brink of precipitous declivities. Descending the gorge of a rocky 
ravine, we then penetrated, as it were, through the bowels of the 
mountain, following the windings of a narrow but verdant glen, 
adorned with occasional clumps of copsewood and forest trees, and 
enlivened by a brawling rivulet. 

At length this little stream entered a yet wilder chasm among 
the rocks, where the foot of man or beast might no farther 
accompany it, and we were forced again to ascend the mountain 
ridge. Here my companion had told me that an extraordinary 
prospect awaited us : but all my previous conceptions fell infinitely 
short of the reality. On the left, a billowy chaos of naked moun- 
tains, rocks, precipices, and yawning abysses, that looked as if 
hurled together by some prodigious convulsion of nature, appalled 
and bewildered the imagination. It seemed as if this congeries of 
gigantic crags, or rather the eternal hills themselves, had been 
tumultously uptorn and heaved together, in some pre- Adamite 
conflict of angelic hosts, with all the veins and strata of their 
deep foundations disrupted, bent and twisted in the struggle into 
a thousand ^tastic shapes ; while, over the lower declivities and 
deep-sunk dells, a dark impenetrable forest spread its shaggy 
skirts, and added to the whole a character of still more wild and 
savage sublimity. 

This was the fore-ground of a vast but sombre landscape^ 
Before us, and on either hand, extended, as far the eye could reach, 
the immense forest jungle which stretches from the Zureberg 



84 HAUNTS OF THE XLBPHANT. 

even to the sea-coast at the mouth of the Bushman's Riyer. 
Through the bosom of this jungle we could distinctly trace the 
binding course of the Sunday Riyer, like the path of some 
mythological dragon, — ^not from the course of its waters, but 
from the hue of the light-green willow trees (salix Sahyloniea) 
which grow along its margins. Beyond, far to the south, appeared 
the Indian Ocean and the shores of Algoa Bay. To the right 
and west, rose the Rietberg mountains and the fiftntastic peaks 
of the Winterhoek. Nearer us, but hidden among the Ixmer 
hills, and surrounded by dense forests, lay the Morarian settle- 
ment of Enon, which we were in search of. It lay fisur beneath 
us ; for on this side of the Zureberg the low country is much 
inferior in elevation to the plains on the northern side, and the 
front of the mountain is proportionably more imposing. 

These rugged ravines and that far-stretching forest were still 
the haunt of elephants and buffaloes, protected from extirpation 
by the enormous extent of jungle, which, consisting chiefly of 
evergreens and succulent plants, such as milkwood, spekboom, and 
euphorbias from fifteen to forty-five feet high, cannot possibly be 
burned down, and assuredly will never be rooted up by human 
industry, since the soil from aridity is unfit for cultivation. 

After contemplating for a while this scene of savage magni- 
ficence^ we descended the long declivities of the mountain, and 
entered the verge of the forest which spreads half-way up its 
skirts. We entered at the head of a glen, by a path that weU 
accorded with the other features of the landscape. It was an 
alley, made by the elephants when they issue forth from their 
sylvan recesses to ascend the mountain. It was about six feet 
wide, and arched over, like a summer alcove ; for the elephant, 
forcing his way through the thickets^ tramples down or breaks 
off the larger branches that obstruct his passage, while the 
lighter and loftier, yielding to the pressure of his huge body, 
meet again like a Gothic arch when the monarch and his troof 
have passed through. These animals march always in single 
file on such occasions ; and a pathway, when once broken out, is 
soon trodden by them as bare, if not so smooth, as a gravel walk. 



VALLEY OF THE WHITE RIVER. 85 

Indeed, but for the services of the elephant as a pioneer, these 
dense and thorny forests, choked up with underwood, and inter- 
laced with rope-like creepers, would be almost utterly impene- 
trable ; and, even with his assistance, it requires some exertion 
and adroitness to force a passage through them. In many places 
limbs of trees half broken off, and large bushes torn up by the 
roots, obstruct the passage, and one is erery moment in danger 
of sharing the fate of Absalom from the numerous boughs that 
hang across the path. One of these, as I bent under it on my 
horse's mane, actually caught and pulled me off the saddle. In 
many places, too, several of these paths converge or cross each 
other, so precisely similar in appearance that, without an experi- 
enced guide, one is almost sure of losing his way ; and even 
although we had a Hottentot guide (and the memory and adroit- 
ness of this race in such cases are most remarkable), and though 
my friend had himself once travelled this route, yet we lost our 
road notwithstanding, and got entangled among the thickets and 
gullies of one of those frightf\il ravines. As we toiled and 
struggled through the sultry mazes of the forest, we were not 
without some apprehension at the idea of being obliged to pass 
a night in it — not from any particular anxiety about shelter, for 
in this fine climate it is no great adventure to spend a night 
' under the greenwood bough ' — but because we were aware that 
the elephants and buffaloes, whose recent traces we saw every 
where around us, are peculiarly dangerous in the night. The 
elephant, indeed, seeks not for man as his enemy, but if he 
accidentally encounters him, is apt to show him little reverence ; 
and the buffalo is, at times, scarcely less dangerous. However, 
we at length threaded our way out of the leafy labyrinth, and 
gaining the grassy banks of the White River, reached the Mora- 
vian settlement before the night closed in. With Mr. Hart the 
missionaries were well acquainted ; and besides this circumstance, 
which alone would have insured me every hospitable attention, 
I had brought with me from England, and forwarded to them, 
some packages of books, and a letter of introduction from the 
Rev. Mr. Latrobe, the superintendent of their society's missions. 



86 VALL£Y OF THB WHITE RIVSRi 

who it fiiTOurably known to the public as the author of a 
yolame of Travels in this colonj. I was welcomed^ therefore^ 
not merely with the hospitable urbanity which the benevolent 
brethren extend to every traveller, but with an affectionate 
and patriarchal cordiality peculiarly engaging; and I willingly 
accepted an invitation to remain with them, while Mr. Hart 
proceeded to Algoa Bay upon government business. 

The valley of the White River lies at the bottom of the 
Zureberg mountains, which rise on this side to an elevation of 
about 2500 feet above the level of the subjacent country. The 
declivities of the mountain, and the whole of the subsidiary hillB 
which encompass this glen, are covered with the clustering 
forest-jangle which I have described; but the banks of the 
stream are comparatively level and open, and covered with 
luxuriant pastures of sweet grass. The whole length of the 
vale may be altogether, probably, about ten or twelve miles, 
from the spot where the little river abruptly emerges from the 
recesses of the mountains to where it joins the Sunday River. 
The scenery of the upper part of the dell is very picturesque. 
Accompanying the course of the stream, as it meanders through 
the meadows, you have^ on the right, lofty hills covered with 
woods of evergreens, and broken by kloofi, or subsidiary dells, 
filled with forest-timber. On the left the hills are lower, but 
also covered with copsewood, and in many places diversified by 
rocks and cliffs of deep red and other lively colours. The valley^ 
winding among those woody heights, spreads out occasionally to 
a considerable breadth; and then again the converging hills 
appear to close it in entirely with huge masses of rock and forest 
At every turn the outline of the hills varies, presenting new 
points of picturesque scenery; while, scattered through the 
meadows, or bending over the river margin, appear little clumps 
of evergreens, willows, and acacias; and sometimes groves of 
lofty forest-trees (chiefly yellow-wood, or Cape cedar) enrich the 
vale with a stately beauty not always met with in South Afirican 
landscape. This combination of the wild, the grand, and the 
beautiful, is heightened in its effect by the exotic appearance of 



MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT. 87 

the vegetation : the lofty candelabra-shaped euphorbias towering 
above the copses of evergreens ; the aloes dustering along the 
summits or fronts of the weather-stained rocks ; the spekboom, 
with its light green leaves and lilac blossoms ; the more elegantly 
shaped mimosa, with its yellow tufted flowers; the baboon's 
ladder, wild-vine, and other parasitical plants and creepers, that 
climb among the crags, and festoon in grotesque exuberance the 
branches of the loftiest trees, intermiiigled with jasmines and 
superb geraniums. These, and a thousand other shrubs and 
flowers, of which only a few are known to our green-houses, 
adorn even the precipitous rocks, and fill up the interstices of 
the forest. 

'the meadows, too, or savannahs along the river banks, are 
richly embellished, at least in the spring and early summer, with 
the large purple flowers of a species of amaryllis which has a very 
splendid appearance. At the time of my visit, which was the 
autumn of the southern hemisphere, the vale was thickly over- 
spread with a small, white, delicate flower, somewhat resembling 
the English anemone. The river itself, like our own River of 
Baboons, is but a large mountain torrent, bursting down after 
heavy rains, in floods, which sweep over a great part of the level 
meads above described, and which fling up in their violence 
immense quantities of large rolled stones and gravel, through 
which the stream, when diminished by the summer heats, filtrates 
silently and unperceived. The current, however, even in the 
greatest droughts, is never entirely interrupted, though some- 
times invisible ; but always fills the large pools, or natural tanks, 
which spread out like little lakelets along its channel, and which 
its temporary floods serve to sweep and purify. 

The Moravian settlement of Enon was situate near the centre 
of the valley of the White River, and in the midst of the scenery 
which I have attempted to describe. It stood upon a level spot 
of alluvial soil, near the margin of one of the deep lagoons 
formed by the river, and which the brethren have named the 
Legnan's Tank, from its being frequented by numbers of the 
large amphibious lizard called the leguan or guana. It was also. 



88 MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT 

I observed, weU stocked with a species of carp common to many 
of the South- African streams. 

The village was laid out in the form of a long street; at the 
upper end of which were to be erected the church, school-room, 
workshops, and dwelling-houses of the missionaries. A small 
part only of these buildings had as yet been completed ; for the 
good brethren and their Hottentot disciples had returned but a 
few months before to re-occupy this station, after having been 
driven out of it by the Caffers in the war of 1819. 

The number of Hottentots at this institution was then about 
200. Their dwellings were, with a few exceptions, small wattled 
cabins of a very simple construction. 

The extent of cultivation here was much inferior to what I 
afterwards witnessed at the elder Moravian settlement of Gena- 
dendal, where the whole village is enveloped in a forest of fruit- 
trees ; but considering the short period that had elapsed since the 
inhabitants had returned to their labours, as much had been 
accomplished as could reasonably be expected. The appearance 
of the whole place was neat, orderly, and demure. There was no 
hurried bustle, no noisy activity, even in the missionary work- 
shops, though industry plied there its regular and cheerful task; 
but a sort of pleasing pastoral quiet seemed to reign througfaont 
the settlement, and brood over the secluded vaUey. 

There were at this time three missionaries at Enon, besideB 
another brother who was absent on a journey — all of them natives 
of Germany. The eldest of these, who was also the superin- 
tendent of the institution, was the venerable Brother Schmitt, 
who after spending his earlier years as a missionary on the 
desolate coast of Labrador, had been sent to Southern Africa. 
Mrs. Schmitt, an Englishwoman, and at this period the only 
white woman in the settlement, appeared to be a person exceed- 
ingly well adapted for the station she occupied. The two 
younger brethren were plain German mechanics. 

Regularity is one of the most striking characteristics of the 
Moravian system ; and a love of order, even to excess, pervades 
every part of their economy. In order to give some idea of this, 



OF BNON. 89 

I shall mention the daily routine at this place, which is, I 
believe, precisely similar to that established at their other insti- 
tutions in this country. 

At six o*clock in the morning, the missionaries and theif 
families are summoned together, by the ringing of a large bell 
suspended in firont of the mission-house. The matin hymn is 
then sung, and a text of scripture read, for all to meditate upon 
during the day ; and after drinking a single cup of coffee, they 
separate to pursue their respective occupations. At eight o'clock 
the bell re-assembles them to a substantial break&st, consisting 
of fish, fruit, eggs, and cold meat; each person commonly 
drinking a single glass of wine> This meal, as well as the others, 
is preceded and followed by a short hymn, by way of grace, in 
which all the con^)any join. As soon as breakfast is over, they 
retire to their separate apartments for meditation or devotion 
till nine o'clock, when the active labours of the day are again 
resumed, and continued till noon. At twelve o'clock precisely 
the bell is again rung; labour is intermitted; the school is 
dismissed; and the brethren and their families assemble in the 
dining-hall to the mid-day meal. The dishes are sometimes 
numerous, (especially, I presume, when they have visiters,) but 
the greater part consist of fruits and vegetables of their own 
cultivation, variously dressed. I did not observe that any of the 
brethren drank more than a single glass of wine, and that 
generally mixed with water. The meal is enlivened with 
cheerful conversation, and is closed with the customary little 
hymn of thanksgiving. AH then rise and retire, to occupy 
or amuse themselves as each may be inclined. Most of the 
missionaries, after dinner, take a short nap, a practice generally 
prevalent throughout the Cape colony, except among the English. 
At two o'clock, a cup of tea or coffee is drank, and all proceed 
again with alacrity to their various occupations, which are pro- 
secuted till six. This latter hour concludes the labours of the 
day; the sound of the hammer is stilled, and the brethren 
assemble once more at the evening-meal, which consists of light 
viands, and is soon over. After supper they adjourn to the 



90 MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT 

churchy where a portion of scriptore is briefly explained, or a 
homily delivered, either to the whole Hottentot congregation, 
or to one of the several sections in which the people are classed, 
agreeably to the progress they may have attained in knowledge 
and piety. All then retire to rest— with an appearance of 
cheerful satisfaction, such as may be naturally imagined to result 
from the habitual practice of industry and temperance, unem- 
bittered by worldly cares, and hallowed by the consciousness of 
having devoted their mental and bodily &cultie8 to the glory of 
God and the good of men. 

Though the Moravians find it impracticable or inexpedient to 
follow up in their missionary settlements some of the peculiar 
and rather monastic regulations, which are observed in their 
European establishments, — such as separating the married and 
the unmarried, the youth of different sexes, Sic^ still their 
precision and formality in classification are very remarkable. 
Among other peculiarities of this description, I may refer to the 
singular arrangement of their burial-grounds, which are divided 
and sub- divided, by walks crossing at right angles, into sevenl 
compartments. One of these plots, thus marked off, is appro- 
priated for the sepulture of the married missionary brethren and 
sisters ; a second for the unmarried brothers ; a third for the un- 
married sisters ; a fourth and fifth for baptized and married natives, 
male and female ; a sixth and seventh for the unmarried and 
unbaptized natives, and so on. This certainly is carrying clas- 
sification to a most fanciful pitch — especially that of mere mcnrtal 
dust and ashes I Passing over this, however, there is unques- 
tionably something very touching, as well as tasteful and pic- 
turesque, in the appearance of a Moravian burial-ground in 
South Africa. Situate at some little distance from the village, 
yet not far from the house of worship, cut out in the centre of 
a grove of evergreens, and kept as neat as a pleasure garden, the 
burial-ground of Enon formed a pleasing contrast to the solitary 
graves, heaped with a few loose stones, or the neglected and 
dilapidated churchyards, usually met with in the colony. The 
funeral service, too, of the Moravians is very solemn and impres- 



OF EMON. 91 

sire. And still more solemn most be the yearljr celebration of 
their service on Easter morn, when the whole population of the 
settlement is congregated in the barial-ground, to listen to an 
appropriate discourse from the most venerable of their pastors, 
accompanied by an affecting commemoration of such of their 
friends and relatives as may have died within the year, and 
followed by hymns and anthems, sung by their united voices 
amidst the ashes of their kindred. 

The missionaries at this place, like their German countrymen 
in general, appeared to have a fine taste for music ; and the voices 
of the Hottentots being peculiarly mellow, there was nothing 
vulgar or discordant in their singing, but, on the contrary, a 
•weet, solemn, and pathetic harmony. Nothing, indeed, can 
well be conceived more exquisitely affecting than the rich though 
simple melody of one of these missionary hymns, when sung by 
an African congregation in the bosom of their native woods, 
where only a very few years ago no voice was heard, save the 
howling of wild beasts, or the yell of savage hordes. 

Wishing to survey more extensively the vicinity of the White 
River, I started one morning before sun-rise, and set out on 
horseback on an exploratory ramble, accompanied by a Hottentot 
guide on foot, equipped with his gun and hunting gear. The 
sun bad not yet risen over the bushy hills as we proceeded down 
the valley, and every tree and flower was bright and sparkling 
with dew, diffusing a grateful feeling of freshness in this thirsty 
land, where rain is precarious and often long denied. The rich 
fragrance of the African jasmine, clustering with its white flowers 
around the rocks and aged trees, agreeably attracted my notice. 
Blue-bells, too, almost precisely similar to those of our own 
Scottish braes, were growing among the tangled brushwood 
through which we wound our way; and a small bird now and 
then warbled a few wild notes, which much resembled the pre- 
luding quaver of the woodlark; but the song died away in a 
feeble trill, and all again was silent, save the cooing of turtle 
doves, which even at this season of the year (the autumn of 
South Africa) is continually heard at early morn, in a wood- 



92 ANECDOTES OV THE 

land country, and which produces a soothing though somewhat 
monotonous effect* 

After proceeding a mile or two down the riyer, we struck into 
a path on the left hand, which led us into the bosom of the 
jungle, or bosch, as it is termed in this country, behind the 
woody heights which bound the White River on the south. 
The path on which we entered led us along a sort of valley, or 
rather avenue, through the forest of evergreens and brushwood, 
which covered the undulating country to the southward as &r si 
the eye could reach. This avenue consisted of a succession of 
grassy savannahs, often of considerate extent, opening into each 
other through the jungle, and affording a wide range of excd- 
lent pasturage for the herds of the settlement* It had, however, 
the disadvantage of being destitute of water, excepting after 
heavy rains; and formerly another serious drawback was the 
extreme hazard from the Caffers to which the cattle pastured in 
it as well as their keepers were exposed, in consequence of the 
extent of woodland which surrounds it. Of this danger suflSdent 
proof was exhibited to me by my guide pointing out, as we passed 
along, the spot where, only two years before, nine of his com- 
rades had been slaughtered. Of this occurrence he gave the 
following account. 

During the irruption of the Caffer clans, after the invasion 
and devastation of their country by the colonial troops in 1818, 
the mountains and forests of the Zureberg were occupied by 
numerous marauding bands of those barbarians, who poured them- 
selves into the colony in a state of great exasperation, resolved 
either to recapture the cattle of which they had been plundered, 
or to indemnify themselves by carrying off those of the colonists. 
They had already several times menaced the Moravian village 
with nightly attacks ; and as it was well known that parties of 
them were lurking in the vicinity, the cattle of the community 
were constantly guarded by ten or twelve of the most courageom 
and steady Hottentots, armed with guns. The Caffers have no 
other arms than clubs and javelins, and they knew well from 
experience that these herdsmen were expert marksmen, and that 



^ CAFFER WARS. 93 

their own weapons were but ill fitted to compete with the firelock. 
They had determined, however, at all hazards, to possess them- 
selves of the fine herd of cattle belonging to the settlement, and 
they proved successfoL 

The Hottentots had one day driven the cattle up this avenue 
into one of the open spots, or woodland prairies, which I have 
just mentioned, and observing no firesh traces of the enemy, 
seated themselves in a group, about a hundred paces from the 
side of the jungle, and began to smoke their pipes, each with his 
loaded gun lying close beside him on the grass. The Caffers, who 
were eagerly watching all their motions from the neighbouring 
heights, judged that this was a favourable opportunity to attack 
them. Creeping through the thickets with the stealthy pace of 
the panther, they advanced cautiously to the skirts of the copse- 
wood nearest to the herdsmen; and there, crouching in silence 
till they observed the incautious men earnestly engaged in 
conversation, and with their faces turned in a different direction, 
they burst out upon them suddenly with their frightful war-whoop. 
Pouring in a shower of assagais as they rushed forward, they 
almoat instantly closed, club in hand, with the few not already 
transfixed by their missiles. So sudden and unexpected was the 
onset that only two of the ten Hottentots had time to fire. Two 
of the assailants fell ; but their loss was bloodily avenged by the 
slaughter of nine of the herdsmen, one only of their number 
escaping by Hying to the jungle, with two assagais sticking in 
his body; and the cattle of the settlement, to the number of 
about a thousand head, became a prey to the enemy. 

The men thus slain were among the best and most industrious 
of the little community, and all of them left wives and families 
to deplore their untimely fate. The event overwhelmed the 
settlement with dismay ; and as the cattle were the chief support 
of the inhabitants, and an attack upon the village itself was 
nightly anticipated, the institution was soon after abandoned, and 
the missionaries and their foUowers took re^ge in the district- 
town of Uitenhage, where they were received with much sympathy. 
From this place of refuge, as I formerly mentioned, they had 
returned only a few months before my visit. 



94 TRACK OF ELEPHANTS. 

With this, and similar anecdotes of the Caffer wars, I was 
entertained by my guide, as we penetrated into the recesses of 
the woody wilderness, which had but recently been the haunt of 
those wild ^'arriors, and where some of their marauding bands 
were reported to be still occasionally lurking. 

But another object soon attracted our attention. The fresh 
traces of a troop of elephants appeared on our path, and my guide, 
after carefully inspecting their foot prints, declared that they had 
passed this way to the eastward only about an hour or so before 
us. Eager to have a sight of those extraordinary animals, which 
I had not yet seen in their wild state, I followed on their route 
as fast as the Hottentot could keep pace with me. For four or 
five miles we pursued their track in this manner through the 
mazy glades of the jungle, my attendant warning me erery now 
and then, as the lofty evergreens crowded more densely around 
the path, to proceed with caution ; and at every new opening 
among the thickets, we glanced eagerly forward and around, in 
the expectation of coming plump upon * a covey of elephants.' 
Our hopes of overtaking them, however, proved fruitless, and on 
gaining an elevation where the copse opened up and admitted 
a view of the country for many miles before us, we saw clearly that 
we were too late. The sagacious animals had retreated just before 
sun-rise, as they usually do, to their less accessible haunts, and were 
in all probability, now concealed in some of the more lofty woods 
or wild ravines that run up to the recesses of the Zureherg. 

Turning our course to the left, we ere long gained a rude wagon- 
tTZ''^, which led us back towards the White River valley* As it 
approached the glen, this path was closed in on either side for 
a considerable distance by the tall copse-wood, so luxmiant in its 
growth that one would suppose even a wolf or a leopard would 
scarcely be able to find a way through it. The path itself 
originally tracked out by the elephants, appears to have been 
widened by the axe just sufiBciently to allow a single wagon to 
pass along, and it now formed the only access on this side to the 
upper part of the glen. This pass, according to the account of 
my guide, had been the scene of another occurrence memoraUe 
in the traditionary annals of our Cape border-wars. 



AFRICAN FORESTS. 95 

Many years ago, before the Caffers were dispossessed of this part 
of the country, and finally driven over the Great Fish River, the 
chief KoDgo and his clan occupied the White River valley and 
the fastnesses of the adjacent mountains in great force. During 
one of the struggles which ensued, in consequence of Kongo's 
attempt to maintain himself in possession of this district, a 
party of seventy or eighty boors was sent to occupy this glen, 
while other troops environed the Caffer camp from the opposite 
side. 

The boors rode in without opposition through this pass ; but 
finding the enemy stronger than they expected, they became 
alarmed, and attempted to retreat by the same road. The Caffers, 
however, who on this occasion showed themselves not destitute 
of military skill, had, in the meanwhile, blocked up the narrow 
path by stretching a large tree across it near the centre, and 
&8tening it with thongs and wattles at either end ; and then 
stationing themselves in strong bands among the copsewood, 
they attacked the boors on all sides, a& soon as they had fairly 
re-entered the defile, with showers of javelins, and slew a 
great number of them before they were able to force a passage 
through. 

On our return to Enon by the valley of the White River, I 
visited the forest (properly so termed, as distinguished from the 
bosch or jungle) whence the settlement is supplied with large 
timber. It grew in a secluded glen or kloofy running up between 
the subsidiary ridges abutting from the Zureberg, and was 
accessible only by a narrow path cut through the thickets. The 
iorest itself, like all the woods I have seen in Africa, was choked 
up by a rank exuberance of undergrowth and creepers, to such a 
degree as to appear quite impenetrable until a path had been 
opened into its recesses by the axe. Among other parasitical 
plants, the hamcumS'tow (baboon's-rope) protruded itself in all 
directions, in a wild web of tangled vegetation. Climbing, like ivy, 
the trunks of the loftiest trees, it coiled its snake-like creepers along 
the branches, stretched them from tree to tree like the cordage 
of a ship, or flung them dangling in the air like ladders of ropes 



96 AFRICAN FORESTS. 

—fitting ladders for the monkeys which inhabit these woods, and 
from which adaptation the plant derives its colonial name. One 
species of monkey's-rope, is the native vine of South Africa. It 
bears a fruit in size and appearance not unlike the large black 
cherry, seldom more than two or three in a cluster, and of a very 
delicate subacid taste. In summer, when it is in bearing, these 
clusters have a very tempting and beautiful appearance, hanging 
in festoons from the very summits of the highest yellow-wood 
trees, ; but, though wholesome, this fruit is rather too acldulent 
to be eaten in any quantity, unless when freed from the stone, 
and sweetened with sugar as a conserve, as one finds it occasionslly 
in the houses of the colonists. The leaves of this vine are shaped 
like those of the ivy, dark green and smooth on the upper, 
and rather woolly on the under surface; not deciduous, but 
evergreen. 

The clumps of forests, comprising a great variety of fine large 
wood, are scattered throughout the vast jungle along the whole 
southern front of the Zureberg mountains ; but the best timber 
is not unfrequently inaccessible, from the position in which it 
grows in th^ recesses of rugged ravines, or on the steep front of 
dangerous precipices. Such situations appear &,vourable in this 
climate to the growth of large trees, owing to the more abundant 
moisture which the porous crevices of the rocks convey to the 
roots, and the mists that roll over the summits to the foliage. 
The most common species was a tree greatly resembling the 
cedar in its external aspect, but belonging to a quite different 
genus, termed by the colonists geelhout, or yellow-wood (taxut 
elongatd). I measured a venerable tree of this wood, growing on 
the bank of the river near the missionary village, and found it to 
be twenty-one feet in girth. I observed, also, iron-wood (o/eo 
undulata), stinkhout (laurus buUata), wild-olive {pliva capetrnt), 
red-ash (cunonia capensis), and many other woods prized for 
their useful qualities. Most of these were evergreens, and were 
trees of magnificent size and beautiful appearance. Among others 
used for the manufacture of household furniture by the mission- 
aries, was a saffron-coloured timber, called sneeze-wood, from the 



ELEPHANT SAGACITY. 97 

effect of its pungent scent when newly cut, and which, among 
other good propeities, is said to possess that of repelling 
all noxious vermin from its neighbourhood : on this account 
it is now much in request for bedsteads throughout the 
colony. 

At the upper extremity of the White Rirer valley, I found a 
solitary farm-shieling. Here the proprietor's wife complained 
bitterly of the annoyance that she and her iamily received from 
the nocturnal visits of the elephants. They were, she said, < too 
big to wrestle with.' They came out of the forest by night, trod 
down her little corn-field, devoured her crop of maize, pulled up 
her fruit trees, and tossed about, as if in wanton malice, articles 
that they could neither devour nor totally destroy ; and only a 
few days previously, her husband, on returning home at a late 
hour, had a narrow escape from one of those animals, which 
met him on the road and chased him several times round his 
wagon. She added, however, that they were far less dangerous 

than they had been when she and her family first came to reside 
in this wild though beautiful valley ; and pointing to a rocky 
mound at a little distance, which rose abruptly from the grassy 
meadows, and overhung a pool of the river, she said that on 
the summit of that rock, not many years since, her husband 
used to' lie concealed among the brushwood, and shoot the ele- 
phants as they passed down the glen in numerous herds, even 
at midday. 

The following curious illustration of the peculiar sagacity of 
this animal was brought under my notice at this place. A few 
days before my arrival at Enon, a troop of elephants came down 
one dark and rainy night close to the outskirts of the village. 
The missionaries heard them bellowing and making an extraor- 
dinary noise for a long time at the upper end of the orchard ; but 
knowing well how dangerous it is to encounter these animals in 
the night, they kept close within their houses till day-break. 
Next morning, on examining the spot where they had heard the 
elephants, they discovered the cause of all this nocturnal uproar* 

p 



98 TBRRIFIC SCENERY. 

There was, at this spot, a ditch or trench, about five or six feet 
in width and twelve in depth, which the industrious missionaries 
had recently cut through the bank of the riyer, on purpose to 
lead out the water to irrigate some part of their garden ground, 
and to drive a corn-mill. Into this trench, which was still 
unfinished and without water, one of the elephants had evidently 
fallen, for the marks of his feet were distinctly visible at the bot- 
tom, as well as the impress of his huge body on its sides. How 
he had got in it was easy to imagine, but how, being once in, he 
had ever contrived to get out again, was the marveL By his own 
unaided efforts it seemed almost impossible for such an animal to 
have extricated him8el£ Could his comrades, then, have assisted 
him ? There appeared little doubt that they had ; though by 
what means, unless by pulling him up with their trunks, it would 
not be easy to conjecture. And in corroboration of this supposi- 
tion, on examining the spot myself, I found the edges of this 
trench deeply indented with numerous vestiges, as if the other 
elephants had stationed themselves on either side, some of them 
kneeling, and others on their feet, and had thus, by united efforts, 
hoisted their unlucky brother out of the pit. 

After I had spent about a week at Enon, Mr. Hart again 
rejoined me, and I took leave of this romantic valley and its 
interesting inhabitants with impressions not soon to be finr« 
gotten. 

On our return home, we took a different route through the 
forest, and across the first ridge of mountains — a route that led 
us through the very centre of the extraordinary scenery which 
struck me so much in our approach to the White River ; and the 
nearer view which I thus obtained of it, increased, if possible, my 
admiration and astonishment. We rode along the summit of a 
mountain ridge, so narrow that there was often scarcely space £>r 
the foot path which was cautiously trodden by our horses. In 
many places a single false step would have precipitated horse and 
rider over the verge of a tremendous abyss, of which we could 
only vaguely distinguish the bottom, jagged with rocks, and 



SLAUGHTER OF MR. STOCKENSTROM. 99 

shaggy with jungle. It was early morning when we traversed 
this savage scene, and the mists which hung upon the mountains, 
lifting or lowering their fleecy folds as we advanced, partially 
revealed, and again enshrouded, the chaotic labyrinth which 
extended around and beneath us — presenting sometimes glimpses 
of wild sylvan beauty almost elysian, and then, on a sudden, 
unfolding just beneath us a gulf of black rocks and forests 
scathed by fire, such as poetic fancy might picture for the 
habitation of infernal demons. The scenery of the Zureberg 
&r surpassed any thing of the kind I had either witnessed 
elsewhere, or formed a conception of from the descriptions of 
others. 

In the midst of this mountain scenery we arrived at a spot 
where the elder Stockenstrom, landdrost of GraaiF-Reinet, had 
been slain by the Cafifers in 1811. Mr. Hart, who had served in 
the colonial campaign of that period under Colonel Graham, 
related to me the circumstances of this melancholy affair as we 
rode along ; and I now give the details as afterwards confirmed to 
me by other competent authorities. 

Mr. Stockenstrom, who was by birth a Swede, and descended 
I believe from a fiunily of ancient distinction in his native land, 
had, in 1803, a period when the affairs of the interior districts of 
the Cape colony were in a most anarchical state, been prevailed 
upon to accept the ofiBce of landdrost of Graaff-Reinet. His 
character for prudence, justice, and humanity stood so high, that 
at the period now referred to, he had acquired not only the respect 
of the Colonists and Hottentots, but also the confidence of the 
iirontier Caffers. In December 1811, when the military force 
under Colonel Graham was on the point of entering the Zureveld 
(Albany including the Zureberg, &c.), in order to expel the 
Caffers from that territory, Mr. Stockenstrom, who commanded 
the colonial militia of armed boors, was despatched to confer with 
Gaika, and to satisfy that chief that no hostilities were intended 
against him, but solely against his uncle Islambi, Habanna,. 
Kongo, and their confederates, who had occupied a tract of 

F 2 



100 SLAUGHTER OF MR. 8TOCKRHSTROM. 

country westward of the Great Fish Rirer to which the coloniftl 
government laid claim. Gaika was satisfied, and pledged himself 
that his people should take no advantage of the absence of the 
boors from their homes, but remain at peace with the 00I0B7 ; and 
he fiiithfullj kept his word. 

The colonial troops entered the Zurereld in three divisions: 
the right commanded by Major Cuyler; the centre by Captain 
Fraser, accompanied by the commander in chief. Colonel Graham; 
and the left by Landdrost Stockenstrom. On the morning of the 
28th December, Mr. Stockenstrom left his camp at the foot of 
the Zureberg, on the northern side, in charge of his son. Ensign 
(now Captain) Stockenstrom, and proceeded across the mountains 
with about forty men, in order to have an interview with Cokmel 
Graham. On their route they had to pass along the narrow ridge 
called Slagbters-nek, which connects two arms of the great moun- 
tain chain ; and on which Mr. Hart and I halted for a brief spaoe^ 
while he pointed out the localities rendered memorable by the 
events of this African campaign. One of the deughs {khofi) 
of the White River, beautifully lined with various sorts of taO 
forest-timber and thick brushwood, joins another cleugh, equally 
picturesque and magnificently wooded, stretching down into the 
valley of the Koomay, thus forming, together with the stupendous 
cliffs above over- hanging their sombre recesses, one of the most 
remarkable landscapes in Southern Afirica. Mr. Stookenstrom 
and his party, on approaching this pass, perceived numeroos 
bands of Caffers issuing from the thickets, and assembling on 
both sides of the footpath by which they had to travel along the 
narrow ridge (nek) in order to reach the opposite high land. 
Some of the boors strongly urged the necessity for caution in 
approaching these bands ; others thought it the best policy to be 
beforehand with the Caffers by at once attacking them. Mr. 
Stockenstrom, however, who had great confidence in the more 
magnanimous part of the Caffer character, viewed this as a fine 
opportunity for exerting himself to prevent bloodshed, by pe^ 
suading the Capers, in an amicable conference, to leave the 



SLAUGHTER Ot Mtt. StOCKSNSTROM. 101 

tountry without fiirthdr hostile operations. Contrary, therefore, 
to the advice of his most confidential counsellors, the field comets 
Potgieter and Gryiing, he rode straight up to the phalanx of 
Caffer warriors and dismounted in the midst of them. This con- 
fidence appeared to have at once conciliated their good-will. The 
ehiefs and piincipal men formed a circle around this yenerahle 
magistrate. The two field comets above mentioned and several 
other burghers had followed their leader closely, determined to 
share Whatever hazard his generous confidence might incu£. The 
number of Caffers increased every moment ; but the conference 
was still of the most amicable nature, insomuch that even the 
most suspicious of the boors had reliniq[ui8hed all distrast, and 
nixed indiscriminately with the Africans. Mr. Stpickenstrom 
was smoking with the chiefs in the most friendly iifid fismuliar 
manner, and was apparently making great progress in the object 
iie had at heart, when one of his party perceived a dense mass of 
Caffers keeping aloof in the deeper recesses of the thicket, and 
evidently communicating by messengers with some of the chiefs 
near them, who began to appear disturbed and i^tated. 

Captain Stockenstrom informed me that, many years after- 
wards, he had conversed upon the events of this day with several 
of the Caffers who were then present ; and from their uniform 
testimony, given under circumstances when they could have no 
motive for deceiving him, he had arrived at the conviction that 
there was no premeditated treachery on this occasion. On seeing 
the colonial troops advancing at a distance, they had assembled, 
they said, with the view of opposing their march to the south- 
ward, by openly assailing them with their missiles at this narrow 
and perilous pass; but that when Mr. Stockenstrom, with a 
frank confidence, placed himself in their power, their most 
friendly feelings were called forth ; nor was any act of treachery 
contemplated until, unhappily, in the midst of the conference, a 
messenger arrived with the intelligence that the right and 
centre divisions of the British force had commenced hostile 
operations — that blood had been shed — and that some men of 



102 SLAUGHTER Of MR« STOCKXNSTROM. 

importance (Gaffers) bad already &llen. This intelligence baying 
been brougbt to a cbief *> tben in tbe tbicket witb a strong party, 
one of bis counsellors {pagati) instantly suggested tbat the 
opportunity wbicb now presented itself for striking a decisiTe 
blow was too good to be lost ; for be oonceiTed tbat tbe destnie- 
tion of Landdrost Stockenstrom, wbom tbose Gaffers supposed to 
be tbe bigbest autbority in tbe interior^ and of the field-cometty 
wbom tbey knew to be tbe principal leaders among tbe boon^ 
would strike sucb a panic as would cause the retreat df the 
whole assailing force, and leave them in quiet possession of ths 
country. Tbe proposal was made known to some of the other 
chiefs. Tbe temptation was too strong to be reaiated by die 
enraged Africans ; and a whispering communication immedistely 
ensued between tbe Gaffers in the bush and those around Ae 
circle of conference*. 

It was at this moment that the boor who had observed these 
signs of bustle and agitation hinted his suspicions to his com- 
mander. Mr. Stockenstrom, whose attention had been occupied 
with the amicable discussion in which he was still engaged with 
some of tbe other chiefs^ replied with a smile that there was no 
danger. But scarcely were the words uttered, when a fiigbtfiil 
yell — tbe Gaffer war-whoop— pealed the signal of destruction; anl 



* It is not known Tfrlio were the leading Oaffer chiefs present on tlds oocaiioa. 
Islambi was in the Zureveld, in the country near the Kowie River. Kongo, iHu> 
was dying of an incurable disease, was on the Addo heights, where he waa tPuSLf 
butchered, a few days afterwards, while asleep in his hut, by a party <^ boon* 
Habanna and Cassa were the principal chiefs of the Cafiera then on the Zimbav; 
but 1 have not been able to ascertain that either of them was preaept at ^ 
conference. 

-)- My friend the Rev. John Brownlee, missionary in Cafierland, has itatad (I 
presume on Caffer testimony) in his valuable Notes appended to Mr. Thon^MOB*! 
Travels, that some of the Amadanka clan were principal parties at tUa conference ; 
and supposes that their revengeful recollection of a bloody deed of colooial treadiflry 
in former days, by which their clan was almost extirpated, led them to indte their 
countrymen on this occasion to the fatal act of retaliation. But of this fiiet, 
however probable, there appears to be no certain evidence. (See Thompmn^ 
Travels^ vol. ii. p. 341.)— -I have, however, in my possession, unquestionable 
proof, that men, women, and children, were indiscriminately slaughtered dnriiu: 
this campaign by the Boors and British troops. 



CONFLICT WITH THE CAFFBRS. 103 

tbe shout was wildly re-echoed through the adjacent hills and 
dales for many miles around. A simultaneous rush was made upon 
the colonists from all sides. The tragic scene was brief. Mr. 
Stockenstrom and fourteen of his men fell, pierced by innumerable 
wounds. Such of the boors as had drawn the muskets from their 
holsters fired at random, and killed a few Caffers ; but the sur- 
idving colonists, of whom several were already wounded, were glad 
to avail themselves of the fleetness of their horses, to escape along 
the mountain ridge; and thus succeeded in reaching Colonel 
Graham's camp that evening, — with the exception of two, who 
not being able to get on horseback, crept into the thicket, and 
eluded the search of the Caffers, until darkness enabled them to 
re-cross the mountains to the spot whence they had that morning 
started. One of these two men was my acquaintance Paul du 
Plessies of Zwagershoek. 

In the meanwhile, one little Bush-boy (the musket-bearer of 
a boor), who had escaped unnoticed when the massacre com- 
menced, reached the camp where Ensign Stockenstrom was 
posted, with the news of his Other's &te, about an hour after the 
tragical event. The feelings of this oflScer (then a very young 
man) may be better imagined than described. He hurried towards 
the spot with about twenty men. On the way they came in 
collision with a numerous body of Caffer warriors, returning 
triumphantly from the scene of death, with the guns and horses 
of the slaughtered colonists. A fierce conflict ensued, in which 
the open nature of the ground gave the mounted boors the 
decided advantage. The Caffers, unable to avail themselves 
effectively of the fire arms they had so recently obtained, were 
defeated with great slaughter, and driven back towards the main 
body of their countrymen, who had occupied in strong force the 
perilous passes of the mountains in the vicinity of Slaghters-nek, 
the field of massacre. The sun being then setting, and it 
being obviously too late to save any of the colonists who had 
been left on the field, young Stockenstrom, after a vain attempt 
to find the spot where his fitther had fallen, retired to protect his 



104 CONVLICT WITH THX CAFVBRS. 

camp, which was threatened hj parties of the enemy in otiner 
directions • 

The following day. Colonel Graham sent a party of cavabj 
under Capt. Fraser, which formed a junction with that und«r 
Ensign Stockenstrom, after having likewise heen desperately 
but ineffectually attacked by the Caffera. This united force 
then encamped near the scene of slaughter, and interred the 
mangled remains of the lamented landdrost and his unfortnoaie 
comrades. 

From this spot I looked round on the scenery which I have 
attempted to describe ; and could well £uicy the effect of the 
savage shout of exultation (described to me with sensations d 
horror by some of those who were present) pealed forth by two 
or three thousand barbarians, as they stood over their Men 
enemies — and which was instantly responded to by similar shonts 



* As a plearing contrast to these scenes of mutual enmity and slaughter, I hate 
great satis&ction in quoting from the recent vork of Mr. Kay, a Wesleyan mis- 
sionary in Cafferland, the following interesting note in reference to this melancholy 
affur i—^^ The Honourahle Capt. Stockenstrom, who succeeded his unfortunate 
father in the office of Landdrost of Grsaf-Rein^t, and who is at present Conunis- 
sionoGeneral of the Eastern Province, and likewise a Memher of Council, bad 
occasion to visit Wesleyville (a missionary station in Cafferland) in April, 1829. 
On his arrival, the chiefs were called together, in order to receive a special message 
with which he was charged from the Colonial Government. In the course of his 
address to them, he adverted to the lamentable events of former days ; but at the 
same time remarked, * We do not now seek each other with the musket or the assagai 
to shed each others blood. When we meet, it is to shake hands and be good 
friends. The bad times have passed away. The Caffers killed my &tJier ; and 
some of you were near at the time. The boors killed your &ther (old Koi^X 
and I was not &r off when it happened. Those were bad doings ; but now all » 
changed. You have received missionaries ; you have now the same word of God 
that we have. The only difference between us is the colour of our skins; bat 
though you are black and we are white, yet God has made of one blood sll 
nations of the earth.* The palaver being ended, Capt. Stockenstrom dined at the 
Mission-House in company with the chleh,*^-~-Kay3 Travek and Researchet'^ 
Caffraria^ p. 254. 

t The precise spot where these bodies were interred could not, when I was there, 
be readily discovered. It is little to the credit of the Colonial Government that 
not even a rude stone has been erected to mark the grave of this meritorioai 
magistrate, and of those who perished with him in the dischai^ of duty ennobled 
by a humane benevolence. Mr. Stockenstrom had been upwards of twenty-five 
years in the public service of the colony. 



CONFLICT WITH THE CAFF£R8« 105 

from hill to hill, and from glen to glen, as the joyful tidings were 
thus conveyed through the adjacent woods and mountains, then 
inhabited by a dense population of Gaffers. The sonorous power 
of the Caffer voice, the stem and stupendous features of the 
country around, and the dismal spectacle of the field of slain, must 
iiave given to the scene at that moment a character indescribably 
terrific and appalling. 



id 



106 



CHAPTER VII. 

Interview with the Acting Governor at Somerset — Further JBpi- 
largement of the Location — Excursion to Albany — Appear' 
ance of the Country near the Coast — Situation cfthe Jjbamf 
Settlers in July^ 1831 — Predatory JBushmen — Mulatto 
Hottentots settled at Glen-Lynden — i%eir Character — Sub- 
division of the Location — Author*s Residence at JEHdon^^ 
Description ofan Emigrant's Cabin — Privations — The Ceded 
Tei*ritory — The Winterherg — Scenery of the Koonap lUoer 
and its Branches — Excursion with a Party of Officers-^A 
Herd Elephants — Remarkahle Escape of Lieutenant Mo6die> 

In June, 1821, the Acting-Governor, Sir Rufime DonkiBy 
paid a visit to the eastern province, in order to inspect personally 
the situation and progress of the British settlers, and to redress, 
as far as possible, any grievances of which they had to comphio. 
After making a circuit through Albany, he proceeded to Somerset, 
where 1 was invited to meet him, as the pressure of business else- 
where did not admit of his extending his tour to our location. I 
found Sir Ru&ne perfectly disposed to listen to every reasonable 
representation, and to remedy to the utmost of his power eveiy 
disadvantage under which we laboured. He deplored the disap- 
pointments to which we had been subjected by the unexpected 
dispersion of the Highland party intended to have been placed near 
us, and the calamitous fate of those who had perished in the 
Abeona ; and as he had given us reason twelve months ago to 
rely on being placed in immediate connection with a considerable 
population of our countrymen, he now o£fered, since that hope bad 
been frustrated, to remove our party, if they desired it, to Albany, 
or to any other situation that they might prefer. This was kind 
and considerate. But as our party had now fully made up their 
minds to remain at Glen-Lynden, 1 stated to Sir Rufane that I 
considered the most effectual way to promote their prosperity was 
to allow a liberal extension of the boundaries of the location, so 



EXCfjRSIOK TO ALBANY. 107 

as to afford an ample range of pasturage, and thus place the 
Scottish settlers more upon a footing with the older colonists 
around them. To this he willingly consented, and gave orders 
that our territory should be extended down the valley till it was 
hounded below by the lands formerly occupied by Frederick 
Bezuidenhout, and recently granted to Captain Cameron, an 
officer of the 72nd regiment. Subsequently additional farms 
were granted separately to some of my brothers, and to other 
individuals of the party, on the Mancazana branch of the Koonap 
River (now Glen-Pringle), which is divided from Glen-Lynden 
by a ridge of steep mountains. And thus, instead of the 1100 
acres, to which we would have been confined by a strict adher- 
ence to the Government scheme of settlement, and which would 
have scarcely been equal to one-fourth of a grazier-boor *s farm, 
we at length succeeded in obtaining from the considerate liberality 
of the Colonial Government, the munificent allotment of not les&r 
than 20,000 acres. This indeed was frdly more than we could 
immediately occupy or adequately stock ; but not more than in 
that p^rt of the country was absolutely requisite for the complete 
establishment of eight or ten substantial farmers. 

A few weeks after my interview with the Acting Governor, 
I accompanied my friend Mr. Hart on an excursion to Albany ; 
in the course of which we visited Graham's Town, Bathurst, Port 
Frances, Theopilus, Salem, and all the principal locations of the 
English settlers from the Kareega to the mouth of the Great 
Fish River. 

My first view of the country formerly called the Zureveld, in 
which the great body of those settlers were located, was from the 
sumniit of the steep hills that bound to the southward the valley 
or hloof in which Graham's Town is situated. From this 
elevated ridge we had at once under our eye the whole of that 
extensive district, bounded by the ocean in front, and by the 
Bnshman and Great Fish rivers on the right and left. This 
tract may be described as an immense plain ; though it is very 
fer fr'om exhibiting over the greater part of its extent any thing 
like a level surface. Near the coast it is much diversified by 



108 APPBARAKCX OF 

small hills and gently rising grounds, and tar the most part 
flows into an easy undulating outline. The streams or rivefs 
alsoy which issue from the range of mountains we now stood 
upon, have in many places intersected it with deep and hroad 
ravines, the sides of which are almost every whexe clothed with 
an impervious forest or jungle. On this account, it is difficult 
to cross the country firom east to west with wheel carriages ; and 
to travel along the hanks of the rivers is still less practicable, 
owing to the innumerable gullies or kloofs, choked up with 
copsewood, that run down to the deep channels of the riveri 
firom the plain or table-land on either side* By keeping aloo^ 
however, from these subsidiary kloofs, and crossing the rive^ 
glens at convenient places, one may travel over the Zureveld 
easily and pleasantly, especially on horseback. In speaking of 
rivers, I may here remark, once for all, that this appellation is 
applied by the African colonists to every brook that merely 
exhibits a rill of running water, and even to many that can 
only occasionally claim that distinction ; so that the term often 
appears to a European apprehension, very unappropriately em- 
ployed. The rivers of the Cape colony, with a few exceptions, 
are little else than periodical torrents, usually flowing with a 
diminutive streamlet at the bottom of a huge chasm or glen, the 
banks of which rise on either hand, steep and shaggy with wood 
like the side of a mountain; so that in many cases it will take one 
a i^ll hour to cross from the top of one bank to the other, although 
the river at the bottom, on ordinary occasions^ will scarcely wet 
your horse's hoofs as you ford it. But then these tremendous 
yawning gulfs, when filled by the sudden and excessive rains 
to which this climate is occasionally, though not frequently) 
subject, are swollen, from <bank to brae,' with a mighty and 
furious torrent, which defies all control and obstructs all passage. 
The forest-jungle which clothes the ravines that border the 
rivers of Albany, was at the time of this visit still inhabited by 
some herds of buffaloes, and some species of the antelope and the 
hysena ; but the elephant had retreated since the arrival of the 
settlers, to the more impenetrable and solitary forests adjoining 



THE COUNTRY. 109 

the Bushman and Great Fish rivers. The herds of hartebeests, 
quaggas, and other large game, described by former travellers as 
frequenting the open pastures, and adding so much life an4 
beauty to the lonely landscape of Albany, had also almost totally 
disappeared^ and with them the lion. A few scattered flocks of 
springboks were all that we observed remaining of the ferm 
fuUurtB, 

In travelling over the open plains and savannahs near the 
coast, we found very generally a light sandy soil of grey, yellow, 
or blackish hue, upon a clayey bottom ; clothed in many places 
urith a closer and more verdant turf than I had seen any where 
else in the colony ; in others, waving with a crop of long spiry 
grass, among the roots of which the loose mould was often turned 
up and traversed by myriads of grey moles and field mice. The 
berbage, though abundant, was almost universally of the description 
called souvy and consequently unsuitable for sheep ; but varying 
much in quality and appearance in di£ferent situations. The 
quality of the soil, likewise, varied very considerably in different 
places ; but, except under the woods, it appeared generally much 
xnore meagre than the alluvial soils of the upper country, and of 
a description that would require frequent assistance from manure 
to render it permanently productive. The want, moreover, of 
fresh water in some places, and the precariousness or brackish 
quality of some of the brooks and fountains, together with the 
impracticable character of the river banks, and the poverty of the 
soil over a large extent of the more open country, appeared to 
present formidable obstacles to the existence of a very dense 
population^ or a very extended agriculture; and rendered no 
inconsiderable portion of this much-lauded district unavailable 
iov any other purpose than the pasturage of homed cattle 
and horses. 

The general aspect of the country was nevertheless fresh, 
pleasing^ and picturesque. The verdant pastures and smooth 
grassy knolls formed an agreeable contrast with the dark masses 
of forest which clothed the broken ground near the river courses. 
The undulating sur&ce of the champaign country was moreover 



110 SITUATION OV 

often agreeably diTenified with scattered dumps or thickets of 
eyergreens interspersed with groves of large trees, like a ndble- 
inan*8 park. Among the latter I fireqnently noticed the erythrkia 
cafra or conUlodendrum (called by the colonist CfxffMHHm)^ 
a large and showy tree, often growing singly, and in early spring 
covered with a dazzling profusion of bright scarlet blossoms* In 
the lower bottoms, wherever a brook or fountain had been 
discovered, and the mould washed from the higher grounds 
presented a richer and deeper soil for cultivation, we found the 
emigrant at work in his field or garden ; his reed hut or wattled 
cabin generally placed on the side of some narrow ravine, undv 
the shade of a grove or thicket ; his cattle and sheep-folds, bis 
garden-fence> and even the division boundary fix>m his neigh- 
bour's field or the common lane, often carefully ditched and 
wattled with that peculiar neatness which the tidy English 
peasant displays in such circumstances. In other and but too 
frequent instances, we also encountered the sure indications of 
the sloven, the sluggard, the drunken, and the improvidrat 
The exertions, too, of many of the more industrious colonists, 
appeared to have been, at first, rather preposterously applied; 
and much inexpertness and mismanagement might still be dis- 
covered in their fieinning operations. This was naturally to be 
expected from the class of people composing the mass of the 
emigrants, among whom was included but a very small propor- 
tion of practical agriculturists. 

The houses they then inhabited, or were erecting, were chiefly 
of the description termed < wattle-and-daub ; ' that is, a frame of 
posts, surmounted by a thatched roof, and wattled up to the 
eaves with limber boughs or saplings from the nearest thicket; 
the inner divisions constructed of the same materials, and the 
whole plastered with clay. And when neatly smoothed over 
and whitewashed, and embellished in front with the trim garden 
plot and wattled fence, these cabins often looked extremely 
handsome and picturesque, as we came suddenly in sight of them 
peeping out from the skirts of the ancient forest, or embowered 
in some romantic wood or evergreen shrubbery. But though 



SETTLERS IN ALBANY. Ill 

readily and cheaply constracted, where materials can be so easily 
obtained, and apparently not ill adapted for a climate usually so 
mild and dry as that of Albany, these slender edifices proved 
quite inadequate to withstand the terrible floods and storms 
which sometimes, though rarely, visit this colony, as the settlers, 
to their cost, ere long* experienced. Some individuals, more 
provident or better provided with means, had built houses of 
brick, stone, or < Devonshire-cob ; * and a few had imitated the 
African boor, in constructing solid walls of tempered clay, which, 
in a country where lime is too expensive to be used for ceqaent, 
is probably the most secure and eligible material for ordinary 
farm-buildings. 

At this period, however, the settlers had only slightly expe- 
rienced the effects of their mistakes, and the pressure of their 
misfortunes. We indeed saw or heard of several families on 
different locations whose wattled or wooden huts had been acci- 
dentally destroyed by fire, with most of their effects ; and many 
others whom we conversed with had a variety of complaints, 
exclusive of the total destruction of their first crops by the fatal 
rust or mildew. But there was as yet no appearance of great or 
general distress. And though even the most sanguine were now 
fully awakened from the delusive dreams of wealth and ease with 
which many of them had emigrated, and somewhat discouraged 
by the failure of their crops, — and though many were destitute 
of money and of all their accustomed comforts, yet, on the whole, 
they appeared by no means so much disheartened or disconcerted 
as might have been anticipated. The Acting Governor on his 
recent visit had shown every disposition to redress real grievances, 
and to mitigate, as far as the power of the government extended, 
unavoidable calamities. The repayment of the wagon hire i^om 
Algoa Bay to the locations had been dispensed with by the 
Home Government ; rations of flour and com had been ordered 
to be served out till the next harvest was reaped ; and certain 
local functionaries, who by their arrogance or incompetency had 
given general dissatisfaction, were replaced by more suitable 
persons. These, and other encouraging circumstances, together 



112 PREDATORY BU8BMSN. 

with the genial influence of a most delightful dimate*, supported 
the spirits of the Albany settlers at this period. — I reserve for 
a future chapter some notice of their subsequent calamities and 
of their present condition. 

To return to our own location. In the beginning of October 
we were somewhat alarmed by the discovery of a band of pre- 
datory Bushmen lurking among the rocks and cayems of the 
wild mountains between us and the valley of the Tarka. Lieu- 
tenant Pettingal, an officer of engineers, who was then in oar 
▼alley, engaged in the government survey of the country, disco- 
vered this horde in searching for some of his horses that were 
missing. Suspecting firom the traces that they had been carried 
off by Bushmen, he went out with an armed troop in pursuit 
and came upon a party of these wild marauders in one of the most 
savage recesses of the neighbouring mountains. They were st 
breakfast on a grey horse which they had slaughtered ; and had 
steaks roasting on the fire cut out of the flank, with the hide 
still upon them. Pettingal, enraged by the supposed loss of his 
best blood horse, poured in a volley upon them ; but, apparently, 
without effect, for tbey all scrambled off with inconceivable 
agility among the rocks and bushes. He recovered, however, 
some of his own horses, and eight belonging to our neighbour 
Wentzel Coetzer, which were tied up under an overhanging diff 
near the top of a mountain. — I shall afterwards reyert to our 
farther intercourse with this unhappy race of people, and to their 
past history and present condition on the colonial borders. 

After the augmentation of our territory by the Colonial 
Government, I willingly availed myself of a convenient oppor- 
tunity which offered for increasing the native population upon it, 
and thereby adding at once to our means of security and our 
profitable occupation of the land. It happened that several of 



• A settler near the Kap River, in whose cabin Mr. Hart and I spent a night on 
this jouniey^ and who had previously resided some years in Canada, assured us 
that he counted all the natural defects of South Africa, balanced by its. mild and 
salubrious climate, as but light when compared with the iron winters and endless 
forests of North America. 



HOTTENTOTS SETTLED AT 6LEN-LYKDEK. 118 

the Mulatto Hottentots (JBctstaards) who had heen stationed 
with us during the first six months, belonged to a small body of 
that class who had for many years resided at Zwagershoek, under 
the protection of an old German settler of the name of StoUz. 
A ^Eiyourable report, it appears, had been carried to this man of 
the treatment the coloured caste had experienced at Glen-Lynden; 
for in August, 1821, old StoUz wrote me a letter, requesting me 
to receive hospitably {herbergzaaml^k) upon our grounds certain 
femilies of his Hottentot vassals ; and some time afterward he 
sent over a messenger to entreat me urgently to visit him without 
delay, as he was about to die, and was anxious to confer with me 
respecting the future disposal and protection of his coloured 
dependents. I rode over accordingly with Mr. G. Rennie to see 
the old man; but when we reached Zwagershoek, we learned 
that Stollz had died two days before, and that we were only in 
time to attend his funeral. It took place next day, and was 
eurious and characteristic enough. The scene of the funeral 
dinner reminded me of some of Sir Walter Scott^s graphic 
sketches. The only real mourners were the coloured people, 
who were not admitted to the feast, and only permitted to follow 
the funeral at a humble distance. The landed property left by 
the deceased fell into the hands of covetous strangers ; and the 
Mulattoes, who had occupied a large part of it as tenants and 
cottagers, were speedily dispossessed. The most of these people 
flocked over to Glen Lynden, where we engaged some of then^ 
as herdsmen and &rm servants, and placed those who had cattle 
as tenants upon our unoccupied lands, upon condition, generally, 
of their rendering certain services in the cultivation of the soil. 
By this means we greatly strengthened our own hands, while we 
liad at the same time the satisfaction of protecting and benefiting 
those oppressed and despised people. A dozen families or more 
thus found a temporary settlement in our valley, some of whom, 
under the sheltering patronage of old Stollz, had accumulated 
considerable property. One old man, Klaas Eckhard (who had 
lost a hand and an eye, but to make amends had two wives), 
possessed an ox-wagon, 60 head of cattle, 25 horses, and about 



114 CHARACTER OF THE HOTTENTOTS 

1,000 sbeep and goats. Nicholas Blok> who had been steward 
to StoUz, had a wagon, a plough, 48 cattle, 18 horses, and about 
500 sheep and goats. Joseph Arendz had a wagon, 50 catUe, 
10 horses, and abont 300 sheep and goats. Some others had 
cattle in smaller numbers. But two brothers, Christian and 
Karal Groepe, who had previouslj become tenants to my fiither, 
had a stock of sheep, cattle, and horses, more numerous than anj 
of the rest, and equal to many of the poorer boors. These 
Groepes were the sons of an old German settler, who had odcb 
been field-cornet of Zwagershoek, but who (now in extreme 
old age) was considered to have lost caste^ from his assodatiflg 
with his own children by a Hottentot woman. 

When these people came to reside at Glen-Lynden, our im- 
mediate district magistrate. Captain Harding, had considerable 
doubts whether the colonial laws would sanction our receiriog 
them on our grounds as tenants merely, without also indentnno^ 
them in every case as our servants. The almost uniyersal usage 
throughout the colony was to consider all Hottentots, whether 
of pure or mixed blood, as under legal obligation to be jdaced 
under contract of servitude; and Captain Harding, though a 
humane man and an able and upright magistrate, had adopted 
the same prejudice. As 1 di£fered from him about the application 
of a coercive clause in Lord Caledon's proclamation of 1809 to 
such cases as the present, the matter was referred to the chief 
magistrate of the district, Captain Stockenstrom, who decided in 
&vour of the more liberal interpretation, and thus the Mulattoes 
of Zwagershoek became our tenants. 

As every adult male among them possessed at least a musket 
and a horse, and they looked to me as their immediate protector, 
I now found myself in the novel situation of a petty * border 
chief;' being able to muster upwards of thirty armed horsem^ 
(including our own party and the six Hottentot soldiers) at 
an hour's notice. We therefore considered our location pe^ 
fectly secure from any serious attack of the wild natives in the 
vicinity. 

These Mulattoes were an acute, active, and enterprising race 



SETTLED AT OLEN-LYNDEK. 115 

of men ; but their unhappy condition as a degraded caste, and 
the irregular sort of life they had led in some respects under old 
StoUz, were not favourable to the formation of habits either of 
steady industry or strict morality. StoUz himself had exhibited 
the evil example of living in habitual concubinage ; and, what 
was still more prejudicial, the sanctions of legal marriage were 
refused by the colonial church to their unions, except upon both 
parties exhibiting qualifications which in nineteen cases out of 
twenty were quite unattainable in their existing circumstances. 
For instance, the clergyman of the district had refused to marry 
Christian Groepe, one of the most respectable and well educated 
of these men, to the woman who had been his fiuthful partner for 
Murly a dozen years, and had borne him eight children, merely 
because the poor woman, after several attempts, could not accu- 
rately repeat the church catechism ! The &ct is, there existed 
a steong prejudice among the white colonists against the full 
admission of the coloured class to ecclesiastical privileges, and 
the majority of the colonial clergy were so little alive to the 
apoatolie duties of their sacred office as to lend their sanction, 
direcdy or indirectly, to these unchristian prejudices, which were 
also countenanced by the colonial laws. 

Notwithstanding, however, these and* other disadvantageous 
circamstances, our Mulatto auxiliaries were, as a body, on the 
whole extremely well-behaved* Their marriage unions, though 
acknowledged neither by the law nor the church, were, with 
occasional exceptions, permanently adhered to. Though too 
much addicted to hunting and other idle habits of semi-civilised 
men, they were not unwilling to labour, and to labour vigorously, 
*ywhen an opportunity was afforded them of thereby improving 
their circumstances. Occasional inebriety, when temptation 
assailed them in the shape of a brandy hawker's wagon (one of 
the worst nuisances of the colony), was perhaps their greatest 
vice. But some had virtue to resist even this besetting sin, when 
duly admonished of its enormity ; and the worst of them did not 
surpass in the indulgence of this vice, many both of the Dutch 
and English colonists. With few exceptions, they attended 



1 16 SUB-DIVISIOK OP THE LOCATIOK. 

regularly and deyontly at oar Sabbath service ; and, what was still 
more gratifying, they evinced great anxiety to learn to read, and 
to obtain copies of the Scriptures for the instruction of their 
children. 

About this period our enlarged location was subdivided ; and 
the several feimilies took possession of their respective allotments 
I then removed my own residence to Eildon, at the lower eztie* 
mity of our territory, in order to occupy a £Eirm which had been 
granted to me for my eldest brother, who had not yet arrived 
from Scotland. As the process of erecting and furnishing an 
African cabin had again to be performed on this occasion, I shall 
describe it somewhat minutely. It may help to give the reader a 
more distinct picture of our mode of life at that period than can 
be easily conveyed by general description. 

The site which I fixed upon for my residence was about three 
miles distant from my neighbours on either side ; Mrs* Rennie 
and her feimily being on the stream above me, and Captain 
Cameron below, with rocky heights and clumps of shrubbeiy 
intervening. I selected an open grassy meadow, with a steep 
mountain behind, and the small river in front, bordered by willow 
trees and groves of the thorny acacia. It was a beautiful and 
secluded spot ; the encircling hills sprinkled over with trees and 
bushes, and the fertile meadow-ground clothed with pasture, and 
bounded by cliffs crowned with aloes and euphorbias. 

As the hut I was about to erect was still only intended for a 
temporary residence, I adopted, with some variations, the mode 
practised by the coloured natives in constructing their sli^t 
habitations. Drawing a circle on the ground of about eighteen 
feet in diameter, I planted upright round this circle about twenty 
tall wiUow poles; digging, with an old bayonet, holes in the 
ground, just lai^e enough to receive their thicker ends. I then 
planted a stouter pole exactly in the centre, and, drawing together 
the tops of the others, I bound them firmly to this central tree 
with thongs of quagga's hide. With the same ligature pliant 
spars or saplings were bound round the circle of poles, at suitable 
intervals, from bottom to top ; and thus the wicker firame or 



DESCRIPTION OF AN EMIGRANT'S CABIN* 117 

skeleton of a cabin was completed, in the shape of a bee-hive or 
sugar-loaf. It was then thatched with reeds, the ends of the first 
layer being let about a couple of inches into the earth. Spaces 
were left for a door and a small window ; but neither fire-place 
nor chimney formed any part of our plan. A oonyenient door, 
to open in two halves, was soon constructed of the boards of 
some packing cases ; and a yard of thin cotton doth stretched 
upon a wooden frame formed a suitable window. 

With the assistance of my Hottentot servants I then proceeded 
to plaster the interior to the height of about six feet, with the 
composition mentioned at page 175. When the plaster was dry, 
tiie whole was washed over with a sort of size-paint, composed of 
pipe-clay and wood-ashes diluted with milk, forming a handsome 
uid durable greyish stone colour. 

Thus secured externally, the next point was to lay a dry and 
firm floor below foot. Following the custom of the country, I 
directed a dozen or two of large ant- hillocks, of which there were 
hundreds within view, to be broken up and brought into the l^ut, 
selecting those that had been previously pierced and sacked by 
the uit-eater. This material, from having been apparently 
cemented by the insect architects with some glutinous substance, 
forms, when pounded and sprinkled with water, a strong adhesive 
mertar, which only requires to be well kneaded with trampling 
feet for a few days, in order to become a dry and compact pave- 
ment, almost as solid and impenetrable as stone or brick. 

With the aid of my native assistants, I had thus obtained a 
commodious circular cabin, about eighteen feet in diameter, and 
nineteen feet high in the centre. In that mild climate this was 
sufficient for shelter ; but for comfort something more was 
necessary. Except cooking utensils, travelling-trunks, and some 
cases of books, I had, as I have formerly mentioned, brought 
with me nothing in the shape of furniture ; and I had been forced 
to abandon most of the rustic things I had made at Clifton, on 
account of one of our neighbours having unluckily imported a 
colony of bugs from London, which in a single season overran 
the whole hamlet, and occasioned us to destroy by fire most of 



118 CABIN FURNITURE. 

the huts when we abandoned them. We thus got rid of bugs, 
and of a plague still more intolerable, of fleas ; and though we 
once or twice found scorpions in our cabin at Eildon, this last 
formidable insect proved to be in reality by &x the least yexations 
inmate of the three. 

But having, as I have already noticed, a touch of the Robinson 
Crusoe about me, I once more betook myself to the use of the 
hatchet, saw, and aug^r, and stimulated by necessity, 'tbe 
mother of invention,' I contrived, in the course of a few weeks, 
to have my new cabin commodiously and completely furnished* 
First, I partitioned off from the outer apartment two bed-closets, 
so contrived, that, by drawing a curtain or two, they could be 
lighted and ventilated at pleasure. In these, I constructed bedr 
steads; the frames being formed of stout poles of wild olive 
(oliva capensis) from a neighbouring thicket, with the smooth 
shining bark left on tiiem ; and the bottoms, on which were 
spread the raatresses, consisting of a strong elastic net-work of 
thongs of bullock's hide. With similar materials I made a 8o& 
for the outer apartment, which also served occasionally for s 
sleeping couch, together with the firame of a table, and a few 
chairs and stools. Not one of these, excepting the table, had the 
touch of a plane upon it. But they looked nothing the woise 
for that ; and the cabin and its rude furniture had something d 
the appearance of a rustic summer-house. My books, ranged 
high on a frame of spars over the bed-rooms, with a couple of. 
fire-locks slung in front, a lion's and leopard's skin or two 
stretched along the thatch above, with horns of antelopes and 
other country spoils interspersed, completed the appropriate 
decorations of my African dwelling. 

A few huts, of a similar but still ruder construction, were 
erected behind my own for the accommodation of our native 
servants, for our little military guard, and for a store-room and 
kitchen. When these and the folds for the flocks and herds 
were finished, the establishment was considered, for the time, 
complete. The work of inclosing, cultivating, and irrigating b 
portion of land for a garden, orchard, and corn-fleld, was a task 



PRIVATIONS. 119 

requiring much time and labour, and was not completed till after 
my brother had succeeded me in the occupation of the place. 

The rations of £our, &c., were discontinued at the close of 
1821 ; but as our wheat crops had succeeded pretty well this 
season, and we had now got a competent share of live stock on 
our fiftrms, we ran no risk of wanting at least the necessaries of 
life. We killed our own beef and mutton ; we had milk, butter, 
and cheese ; we reared abundance of poultry ; we cultivated with 
success potatoes, pumpkins, melons, with almost all the ordinary 
esculent vegetables, and some not known in Europe. We learned 
from our Dutch-African neighbours to make our own soap and 
candles ; and to manufacture from the skins of our sheep and 
goats, tanned with mimosa bark, excellent leather for jackets and 
trousers, and which supplied a sort of clothing well adapted for 
a country full of thorny trees and jungles. All that we had 
occasion to purchase^ therefore, were a few luxuries^ such as tea, 
coffee, sugar, wine, spices, &c. We usually got a sufficient 
quantity at a time from Cape Town or Algoa Bay to last us a 
considerable period; but once or twice, our old stock being 
exhausted before the new arrived, we found ourselves entirely 
destitute of the most important of these articles — tea and sugar, 
of which neither Cradock nor Somerset then afforded a regular 
supply. 

We were once subjected to a more serious privation. In the 
summer of 1821-22, we were again visited by a severe drought, 
which endured so long that at length our little river ceased to 
ffdw ; and, although we had enough of water in permanent pools 
and fountains for ourselves and our cattle to drink, we could not 
get our wheat ground into flour, in consequence of all the mills 
on the river being stopped for want of water, and were soon left 
without bread. As all our neighbours were nearly in the same 
sitiiation^ we could neither borrow nor purchase. Our Dutch- 
African neighbours and our Hottentot servants took the matter 
very coolly. They could live very well on mutton and boiled 
com, they said, for a month or two till rain fell. Indeed many 
of them in the arid back country lire entirely on animal food and 



120 THE CEDED TERRITORY. 

milk, without either bread or vegetables. But it was different 
with us : we felt the want of bread as a grieyous privation. For 
a week or two we made a shift to grind a dail7 supply with our 
coffee mill; but this at length also &iled. The iron handle wss 
repeatedly broken ; and though I had enough of smith's or tinker's 
craft to repair it twice, the third firactnre was beyond my skill ; 
and we were then reduced to grind, or rather to bruise, our com, 
by crushing a few grains at a time with a round stone upon a flat 
one. By this tedious process we procured a small cake or two 
daily ; and with this we were forced to content ourselves until we 
could obtain a supply of flour ^m Somerset. This was a real 
privation : but, after all, I must not forbear to add, that these 
same cakes, baked of coarse meal ground between two stones, and 
occasionally of my own grinding, made the sweetest bread, I thinks 
I ever tasted. 

During my residence at Eildon, I made various ezploiatoiy 
excursions into the waste country lying between our valley and 
the New Caffer Frontier, which had remained totaUy unoccupied 
since the native inhabitants were driven out of it in 1819. This 
tract, on its first acquisition by the Colonial Government, was 
termed the Neutral Ground, afterwards, the Ceded Territoiy ^. 
It comprises an irregular area of about 2,800 square miles, or a 
million and a half of acres, of which the upper part, immediate^ 
adjacent to our location, is a mountainous region intersected with 
deep glens, abounding with wood, water, and pasturage. The 
streams issuing ftom these glens, and their numerous subsidiary 
kloofs, form the Kat and Koonap rivers. 



* The former boundary of the Colony on the east, — as fixed hj the Dntdi 
Governor Plettenberg, in 1778, and afterwards confirmed at a conferenee held 
with the Chief Gaika, in 1797, at which Mr. Barrow was present, — ^was the GfMt 
Fish River, from its mouth to a spot near the influx of the Bavian's River 
(Lynden); and from thence continued along the summit of the Kahabeig, and of 
the ridge which divides Glen-Lynden from the valleys lying eastward of it9 and the 
head. waters of the Tarka from those of the Koonap, till it reached the top of the 
Winterberg. The new boundary is formed by the Keisi and Chunu riveia, to the 
influx of the Gaga streamlet, and thence runs along the summit of the Katbeif 
ridge to the Winterberg. The tract of country circumscribed by these two Unes, 
and by the sea beach on the south, constitutes the ^ Ceded Territory/.^Setf M^) 



THE WINTERBERO. 121 

In one of my excursions into this region, I was accompanied 
by a hunting party of our Mulatto Hottentots ; and while they 
were engaged in chasing the eland, the gnu, and the hartebeest, 
in the valleys below, I ascended the Winterbei^, the loftiest 
and most remarkable mountain in this part of the country. 
Though steep, it is accessible on horseback to within 500 or 600 
yards of the top, whence it is necessary to clamber up the shelving 
rocks on the western side ; the tabular summit being surrounded 
apparently, in all other directions, by a perpendicular wall of 
basaltic rock, like the rampart of a fortification. In many places, 
gigantic natural columns abutted from this rocky rampart, like 
flanking towers and bastions, entirely separated, in numerous 
instances, by deep chasms from the front of the cliff. On these 
inaccessible turrets, we observed the eyries of several species of 
eagles and vultures. The base of the rocks was fringed with a 
belt of dwarf bamboo, not found in the country below. 

The height of the Winterberg is generally supposed to be at 
kast 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. Some engineer 
officers who ascended it soon after me, estimated its elevation at 
about 8,000 feet; but I believe they had no instruments for 
ascertaining the &ct scientifically, and am rather inclined, from 
other circumstances, to consider this estimate beyond the truth. 
The view from the summit is, however, very extensive in all 
directions. A large portion of the Amakosa territory, with the 
Indian Ocean beyond, can be viewed in clear weather to the 
south-east ; and I distinctly perceived the remarkable peaks of 
Winterhoek near the sources of the Zwartkops River, distant 
fully 120 miles as the crow flies. The top of the Winterberg is 
usually covered with snow for about three months in the year, 
from which circumstance it doubtless obtained its colonial name. 
Its immediate height, however, from the upland country which 
snnronnds it, is not very imposing — ^not more apparently than 
from 1,800 to 2,000 feet. In a recess, on its summit, we dis- 
covered what appeared from fragments of skins, bones, and 
broken arrows, to be a Bushman's den — occupied, seemingly, at 
no distant period. To this race of wild huntsmen, who are 

6 



122 SCENERY OF THE KOONAP RIVER. 

endowed with extraordinary powers of vision, such an elevated 
watch-tower must afford great facilities for descrying afieir off the 
game which they pursue, or the enemies whom they shun. 

On subsequent occasions, I made excursions through other 
parts of the Ceded Territory. One of these was for the purpose 
of exploring the valley of the Mancazana, now called Glen- 
Pringle *. I was accompanied by some of our own party, and bj 
Diederik and Christian Muller, renowned Dutch- African hants- 
men. We slept one night at the mouth of a subsidiary dell, 
which I named Elephant's Glen, from the circumstance of its 
wooded recesses being then inhabited by a troop of those gigantic 
animals, whose strange wild cry was heard by us the whole night 
long, as we bivouacked by the river, sounding like a trumpet 
among the moonlight mountains. 

The scenery both of this and of the other chief branches of the 
Koonap river was of a very impressive character. The aspect 
of the country, though wild, was rich and beautiful. It was 
watered by numerous rivulets, and diversified with lofty moon- 
tains and winding vales, with picturesque rocks and shaggy 
jungles, open upland pastures, and meadows along the river 
margins, sprinkled as usual with willows and acacias, and 
occasionally with groves of stately yellow-wood. Many of the 
mountain sides and kloofs were clothed with woods of large 
timber. At the time I refer to, the whole of this tract had been 
for some years abandoned to the undisputed occupation of the 
wild animals, which had consequently flocked to it in great num- 
bers A*om the surrounding districts. In no other part of South 
Africa have I ever seen so many of the larger sorts of antelopes; 
and the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the buffalo were also to he 
found in the forests, though we saw none of these animals on this 
occasion. But the remains of Caffer hamlets, scattered through 
every grassy nook and dell, and now fast crumbling to decay, 
excited reflections of a very melancholy character, and occasion- 



♦ There is another Mancazana in the Ceded Territory — one of the sooites af 
the Kat River. The name is derived from the Amukosa term UmkatoMt or 
Amakasana, and signifies the ' River of Girls.' 



EXCURSION WITH A PARTY OF OFFICERS. 123 

ally increased, even to a most painful degree, the feeling of 
dreary lonesomefiess which the wild grandeur of the scenery 
tended to excite. 

On another excursion, I had the good fortune to fall in with a 
troop of elephants — a truly magnificent spectacle, of which I 
shall endeavour to convey some idea by a more particular 
description. 

In April 1822, Lieutenants Rivers and Pettingal, two engineer 
officers, accompanied by Captain Fox, with six or eight men of 
the Cape Corps cavalry, came up Glen-Lynden on an exploratory 
tour, and spent a night with me in my reed hut. I rode with 
them next day into the Ceded Territory ; and while they ascended 
the Winterberg, I constructed, with the aid of the Hottentot 
soldiers, a sort of booth or shieling, for our shelter at night, on 
the skirts of a wood, in a lovely verdant glen at the foot of the 
mountain, all alive with the amusing garrulity of monkeys and 
paroquets. The aspect of the Winterberg from this spot was 
very grand, with its coronet of rocks, its frowning front, and its 
steep grassy skirts, feathered over with a straggling forest partly 
scathed by fire. As lions were numerous in the vicinity, we took 
care to have a blazing watch-fire, and a couple of sentinels were 
placed for our protection during the night. We received, how- 
ever> no disturbance, and spent a very pleasant evening in our 
f greenwood bower;' the spot, in jocular commemoration of one 
of the party, being thenceforth denominated Fox's Kraal or 
Shieling. 

■ Next day, we followed the course of the Koonap over green 
sloping hills, till the increasing ruggedness of the ravines, and 
the prevalence of jungle, compelled us to pursue a Caffer path, 
now kept open only by the passage of wild animals, along the 
riyer margin. The general character of the scenery I have already 
described. During the forenoon, we had seen many herds of 
qnaggas, and antelopes of various kinds, which I need not stop 
to enumerate ; but after mid-day we came upon the recent traces 
of a troop of elephants. Their huge foot-prints were every where 
risible ; and in the swampy spots on the banks of the river it was 

G 2 



124 A HERD OF ELEPHANTS. 

evident that some of them had been luxurioosly enjoying them- 
selves by rolling their unwieldy bulks in the ooze and mud. Bat 
it was in the groves and jungles that they had left the most 
striking proofs of their recent presence and peculiar habits. In 
many places paths had been trodden through the midst of dense 
thorny forests, otherwise impenetrable. They appeared to have 
opened up these paths with great judgment, always taking the 
best and shortest cut to the next open savannah, or ford of the 
river; and in this way their labours were of the greatest use to 
us by pioneering our route through a most intricate country, 
never yet traversed by a wheel-carriage, and great part of it, 
indeed, not easily accessible even on horseback. In such places 
the great bull elephant always marches in the van, burstisgf 
through the jungle as a bullock would through a field of hops, 
treading down the brushwood, and breaking off with his proboscis 
the larger branches that obstruct the passage, whilst the femaks 
and younger part of the herd follow in his wake. 

Among the mimosa trees sprinkled over the meadows, or lower 
bottoms, the traces of their operations were not less apparent 
Immense numbers of these trees had been torn out of the ground, 
and placed in an inverted position, in order to enable the animals 
to browse at their ease on their juicy roots, which form a £iyoarite 
part of their food. I observed that, in numerous instances, when 
the trees were of considerable size, the elephant had employed 
one of his tusks, exactly as we would use a crow->bar-^hnistiii|^ 
it under the roots to loosen their hold of the earth, before he 
attempted to tear them up with his proboscis. Many of the 
larger mimosas had resisted all their efforts ; and, indeed, it is 
only after heavy rains, when the soil is soft and loose, that thej 
can successfully attempt this operation. 

While we were admiring these and other indications of the 
elephant's strength and sagacity, we suddenly found ourselyes, on 
issuing firom a woody defile, in the midst of a numerous herd of 
those animals. None of them, however, were very dose to ns; 
but they were seen scattered in groups over the bottom and sides 
of a valley two or three miles in length ; some browsing on the 



A HERD OF ELEPHANTS. 125 

succulent spekboom, which clothed the skirts of the hills on either 
side ; others at work among the young mimosas and evergreens 
sprinkled over the meadows. As we proceeded cautiously onward, 
some of these groups came more distinctly into view ; consisting 
apparently, in many instances, of separate families, the male, the 
female, and the young of different sizes ; and the gigantic magni- 
tude of the chief leaders became more and more striking. The 
calm and stately tranquillity of their deportment, too, was 
remarkable. Though we were a band of about a dozen horsemen, 
including our Hottentot attendants, they seemed either not to 
observe, or altogether to disregard, our march down the valley. 

Captain Fox, who had only recently arrived from England, was 
▼ery desirous of seeing an elephant-hunt ; and the Hottentots, 
who were well experienced in such pastime, eagerly solicited 
permission to attack a group that were browsing in a thicket 
about a quarter of a mile distant ; but it was judged imprudent as 
well as useless to make any such attempt. The sun was sinking 
last towards the horizon ; we had recently passed through a long 
succession of intricate and difficult defiles ; a pass of the same 
description lay just before us ; and the hills on either side rose 
steep, and rugged, and shaggy with an impenetrable forest of 
evergreens. To have commenced an attack, in such a situation, 
with our small guns and leaden ballets, on any part of a herd 
whose total number exceeded fifty elephants, would have been 
not only ineffective, but dangerous in the extreme. I confess, 
too, that when I looked around on those noble and stately animals, 
feeding in quiet security in the depth of this secluded valley — 
too peaceful to injure, too powerful to dread any other living 
creature — I felt that it would be almost a sort of sacrilege to 
attempt their destruction merely to furnish sport to the great 
destroyer man ; and I was glad when after a brief consultation it 
was unanimously agreed to leave them unmolested. 

While we were conversing on this subject, as we rode leisurely 
along through a meadow thickly studded over with clumps of 
tall evergreens, I observed something moving over the top of a 
bush close a-head of us, and had just time to say to the gentle- 



]26 A HERD OF ELEPHANTS. 

man next me, * Look out there I ' when we turned the comer of 
the bush and beheld an enormoas male elephant standing right in 
the path within less than a hundred paces' distance. We halted 
and surveyed him for a few minutes in silent admiration and 
astonishment. He was, indeed, a mighty and magnificent crea- 
ture. The two engineer officers, who were familiar with the 
appearance of the elephant in his wild state, agreed that the 
animal before us was at least fourteen foet in height ; and oar 
Hottentots, in their broken Dutch, whispered that he was " een 
groot gruwzaam karl — bania\bania*grootf"^-'Off as one of them 
translated it, '' a hugeous terrible fellow, plenty, plenty big!" 

The elephant at first did not seem to notice us, for the Tisimi 
of the animal is not very acute, and the wind being pretty bridr, 
and we to the leeward of him, his scent and hearing, thoogh 
keen, had not apprised him of our approach. But when we 
turned off at a gallop, making a circuit Uirough the bushes to 
avoid collision with him, he was startled hj the sound of our 
horses* feet, and turned towards us with a very menacing atti* 
tude, erecting his enormous ears, and elevating his trunk in the 
air, as if about to rush upon us. Had he done so, some of ns 
would probably have been destroyed ; for the elephant can mn 
down a well-mounted horseman in a short chase ; and, besides, 
there was another ugly defile but a little way before us, where 
the only passage was a difficult pass through the jungle, with • 
precipice on one side and a wooded mountain on the other. 
However, the * gruwzaam karly fortunately, did not think 
proper to give chase, but remained on the same spot loduog 
steadfastly after us, well pleased, no doubt, to be rid of ov 
company, and satisfied to see his family all safe around him. The 
latter consisted of two or three females, and as many young ones, 
that had hastily crowded up behind him from the river margin, 
as if to claim his protection, when the rushing sound of our 
cavalcade startled their quiet valley. 

I counted altogether fifty-three of the herd, and there were 
probably a few more concealed by the tall copsewood. 

After passing the elephants, the valley, emerging from the 



REMARKAB££ escape OF LIEUTENANT MOODIE. 127 

tnountaiDs, gradually widened out, and spread itself into extensive 
open plains or savannahs, in the midst of which, near the influx 
of the Gola rivulet, we reached the wagon-road from Somerset to 
Fort Beaufort, where we found the tents and wagons of our 
fellow- travellers. 

To give the reader some idea of the peril of encountering the 
African elephant when enraged, I may here insert the following 
account by my friend Lieutenant Moodie, of the 21st Fusileers, 
of his remarkable escape from under the feet of one, only a few 
months previous to the period of the above excursion. The 
account is extracted from a letter addressed to me by Mr. Moodie. 

" In the year 1821, I had joined the recently-formed semi- 
military settlement of Fredericksburg, on the picturesque banks 
of the Gualana, beyond the Great Fish River. At this place 
our party (consisting chiefly of the disbanded officers and soldiers 
of the Royal African Corps) had already shot many elephants, 
with which the country at that time abounded. The day previous 
to my adventure I had witnessed an elephant-hunt for the first 
time. On that occasion a large female was killed, after some 
hundred shots had been fired at her. The balls seemed at first to 
produce little effect, but at length she received several shots in 
the trunk and eyes, which entirely disabled her from making 
resistance or escaping, and she then fell an easy prey to her 
assailants. 

" On the following day, one of our servants came to inform 
us that a large troop of elephants was in the neighbourhood of 
the settlement, and that several of our people were already on 
their way to attack them. I instantly set out to join the hunters ; 
but, from losing my way in the jungle through which I had to 
proceed, I did not overtake them until after they had driven the 
elephants from their first station. On getting out of the jungle 
1 was proceeding through an open meadow on the banks of the 
Gualana, to the spot where I heard the firing, when I was suddenly 
warned of approaching danger, by loud cries of < Pas'Op ! * — Take 
care ! — ^in Dutch and English, coupled with my name ; and at 
the same moment I heard the crackling of broken branches, 



128 RKMARKABLX XSCAPB OF 

produced by the elephants bursting through the wood, and the 
tremendous screams of their wrathful voices resounding among 
the precipitous banks. Immediately a large female, accompaaied 
by three others of a smaller size, issued from the edge of the 
jungle, which skirted the river margin. As they were not more 
than two hundred yards off, and were proceeding directly towards 
me, I had not much time to decide on my motions. Being alone, 
and in the middle of a little open plain, I saw that I must ineri* 
tably be caught, should I fire in this position, and my shot not 
take effect. I therefore retreated hastily out of their direct path, 
thinking they would not observe me, until I should find a better 
opportunity to attack them. But in this I was mistaken, for on 
looking back I perceived, to my dismay, that they had left their 
former course, and were rapidly pursuing and gaining ground on 
me. Under these circumstances I determined to reserve my fire 
as a last resource ; and turning off at right angles in the opposite 
direction, I made for the banks of the small river with a view to 
take refuge among the rocks on the other side, where I should 
have been safe. But before I got within fifty paces of the river, 
the elephants were within twenty paces of me ^the large female in 
the middle, and the other three on either side of her, apparently 
with the intention of making sure of me ; all of them screaming 
80 tremendously, that I was almost stunned with the noise. I 
immediately turned round, cocked my gun, and aimed at the 
head of the largest, the female. But the gun, unfortunately, 
from the powder being damp, hung fire, till I was in the act of 
taking it from my shoulder, when it went off, and the ball merely 
grazed the side of her head. Halting only for an instant, the 
animal again rushed furiously forward. I fell — I cannot say 
whether struck down by her trunk or not. She then made a 
thrust at me with her tusk. Luckily for me she had only onif 
which still more luckily missed its mark ; but it ploughed up the 
earth within an inch or two of my body. She then caught me 
with her trunk by the middle, threw me between her fore feet, 
and knocked me about with them for a brief space — I was 
scarcely in a condition to compute the number of minutes or 



LIEUTENANT MOODIE. 129 

seconds rery accutately. Once she pressed her foot on my chest 
with such force, that I actually felt the bones, as it were, bending 
tinder the weight ; and once she trod on the middle of my arm, 
which, fortunately, lay flat on the ground at the time. During 
this rough handling, however, I never entirely lost my recollec- 
tion, else t hare little doubt she would have settled my accounts 
with this world. But owing to the roundness of her foot, I 
generally managed, by twisting my body and limbs, to escape her 
direct tread. While I was still undergoing this buffeting. 
Lieutenant Chisholm, of the Royal African Corps, and Diederik, 
a Hottentot, had come up, and fired several shots at her, one of 
which hit her in the shoulder ; and at the same time her com- 
panions, or young ones, retiring, and screaming to her from the 
edge of the forest, she reluctantly left me, giving me a cuff or 
two with her hind feet in passing. I got up, picked up my gun, 
and staggered away as fast as my aching bones would allow ; but 
observing that she turned round, and looked back towards me, 
before entering the bush, I lay down in the long grass, by which 
means I escaped her observation. 

" On reaching the top of the high bank of the river, I met my 
brother, who had not been at this day's hunt, but had run out on 
being told by one of the men that he had seen me killed. He 
was not a little surprised at meeting me alone and in a whole 
skin, though plastered with mud from head to foot. While he, 
Mr. Knight, of the Cape regiment, and I, were yet talking of my 
adventure, an unlucky soldier of the Royal African Corps, of 
the name of M'Clane, attracted the attention of a large male 
elephant, which had been driven towards the village. The 
ferocious animal gave chase, and caught him immediately under 
the height where we were standing — carried him some distance 
in his trunk — then threw him down, and bringing his four feet 
together, trod and stamped upon him for a considerable time, 
till he was quite dead. Leaving the corpse for a little, he again 
returned, as if to make quite sure of his destruction, and kneeling 
down, crushed and kneaded the body with his fore-legs. Then 
seizing it again with his trunk, he carried it to the edge of the 

Gd 



130 AFFECTION AND SAGACITY OF THE ELEPHANT. 

jungle, and threw it among the hushes. While this tragedy was 
going on, my brother and I scrambled down the bank as &r as 
we could, and fired at the furious animal, but we were at too great 
a distance to be of any service to the unfortunate man, .who was 
crushed almost to a jelly, 

<< Shortly after this catastrophe, a shot iirom one of the people 
broke this male elephant's left fore-^eg, which completely disabled 
him from running. On this occasion, we witnessed a touching 
instance of affection and sagacity in the elephant, which I cannot 
forbear to relate, as it so well illustrates the character of this 
noble animal. Seeing the danger and distress of her mate, the 
female before mentioned (my personal antagonist), regardless of 
her own danger, quitted her shelter in the bush, rushed out to 
his assistance, walked round and round him, chasing away the 
assailants, and still returning to his side and caressing him; 
and when he attempted to walk she placed her flank under his 
wounded side and supported him. This scene continued nearly 
half an hour, until the female received a severe wound from Mr. 
C. Mackenzie, of the Royal African Corps, which drove her again 
to the bush, where she speedily sank exhausted from the loss of 
blood; and the male soon after received a mortal wound also 
from the same officer. 

<< Thus ended our elephant-hunt ; and I need hardly say, that 
wliat we witnessed on this occasion, of the intrepidity and ferocity 
of these powerful animals, rendered us more cautious in our 
dailings with them for the future." 



131 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Wars wUh the Wild Seasts; lAon'hunting — Notices and 
Anecdotes of other Animals ; Leopards; Hycena^ ; the 
Hippopotamus and Rhinoceros ; the Buffalo ; the Gnu ; 
the Quagga; the Ursine Gaboon, 8fc, — Jlie Secretary 
JBird — Hanging Nests of the Loxia and Weaver-bird — 
Serpents ; Antidotes against the effects of their poison — 
The Guana, and other Reptiles — Insects — Locusts—^ 
Exuberance of Animal Life, 

I SHALL devote this chapter to cursorj notices of some of 
the more remarkable families of the Animal Kingdom with 
which we became more or less acquainted, in the course of 
occupying a position on the outskirts of civilization ; premising 
that these zoological scraps are intended for the general reader 
merely, and without pretension to add any gleanings of natural 
history worthy the particular attention of men of science. 

In the first place, I shall now give some account of our wars 
with the beasts of prey — allowing, of course, due precedence to 
the lion. The first actual conflict of the Glen-Lynden settlers 
with this formidable animal occurred in June 1821, while I 
was absent from home, — having gone to meet the Acting- 
Governor at Somerset. The following were the circumstances, 
as detailed to me by the parties present. A horse was missing, 
belonging to old Hans Blok, one of our Mulatto tenants, which 
after some search was discovered by the foot-prints to have 
been killed by a lion. The boldest men of the settlement 
having assembled to give battle to the spoiler, he was traced 
to a secluded spot, about a mile or upwards from the place 
where he had seized his prey. He had carried the horse with 
him to devour it at his leisure, as is the usual practice of this 
powerful animal. On the approach of the hunters, the lion, 
after some little demur, retreated to a thicket in a shallow 



132 CONFLICT WITH A LION. 

ravine at no great distance. The huntsmen followed cauti- 
ously, and having taken post on an adjoining height, poured 
volley after volley into the thicket. This hombardment 
produced no perceptible effect ; the lion kept under covert and 
refused to give battle ; only i?dien the wolf-hounds were sent 
in to tease him, he drove them forth again with a savage growl, 
killing two of those that had dared to approach him. At 
length Mr. George Rennie^ the leader of the hunt, a man of 
daring hardihood, losing patience at these fruitless proceedings, 
descended from the height^ and, approaching the thicket, threw 
two large stones into the midst of it. This rash bravado 
brought forth the lion. He sprung fiercely from his covert, 
and with another bound would probably have had our friend 
prostrate under his paw, but most fortunately at this critical 
moment, the attention of the savage beast was attracted by a 
favourite dog of Mr. Rennie's, which ran boldly up to the 
lion and barked in his face. The poor dog was destroyed in 
a moment: a single blow from the lion's paw rewarded his 
generous devotion with death. But that instant was sufficient 
to save his master. Mr. Rennie had instinctively sprung 
back a pace or two ; his comrades on the rock fired at once with 
effect ; and the lion fell dead upon the spot, with eight balls 
through his body. 

Our next serious encounter with the monarch of the wil- 
derness occurred* about the close of April, 1822. I was then 
residing on my farm at Eildon, in the bee-hive cabin, which I 
have described in the preceding chapter. My nearest neigh- 
bour at that time was Captain Cameron, a Scotch officer of the 
72nd regiment, who had lately come to occupy the farm imme- 
diately below me on the river. I had gone down one evening 
with another gentleman and two or three female relatives to 
drink tea with Captain Cameron's family. The distance being 
little more than three miles, we considered ourselves next 
door neighbours ; and, as the weather was fine, we agreed to 
ride home by moon light — no lions having been seen or traced in 
the valley for nine or ten months. On our return we were 



CATTLE ATTACKED BY A LION. 133 

jesting as we rode along about wild beasts and Caffers. That 
part of the valley we were passing through is rerj wild, and 
encumbered in several places with thickets of evergreens ; but 
we had no suspicion at the moment of what afterwards appeared 
to be the fact — that a lion was actually dogging us through 
the bushes the whole way home. Happily for us, however, 
he did not then show himself, or give us any indication of 
his presence ; being probably somewhat scared by the number 
of our cavalcade. 

About midnight^ however, I was awakened by an unusual 
noise in the kraaly or cattle fold, close behind our cabin. 
Looking out, I saw the whole of the homed cattle springing 
wildly over the high thorn fence, and scampering round the 
place. Fancying that a hyaena, which I had heard howling when 
I went to bed, had alarmed the animals by breaking into the 
kraal, I seized my gun, and sallied forth, undressed as I was, to 
have a shot at it. Though the cloudless full moon shone with 
a brilliant light (so bright in that fine climate that I have 
frequently read small print by it), I could discover no cause for 
the terror of the cattle, and after calling a Hottentot to shut 
them again into the kraal, I retired once more to rest. Next 
morning. Captain Cameron rode up to inform me that his 
herdsmen had discovered by the traces in the path, that a large 
lion had followed us up the valley the preceding night; and 
upon further search, it was ascertained that this unwelcome 
visitant had actually been in my fold the preceding night, and, 
had carried off a sheep. But as he appeared, by the traces, to 
have retreated with his prey to the mountains, we abandoned 
for the moiflent all idea of pursuing him. 

The lion was not disposed, however, to have done with us on 
such easy terms. He returned that very night, and killed my 
fiivourite riding horse, little more than a hundred yards from 
the door of our cabin. I then considered it full time to take 
prompt measures in self-defence ; and sent a messenger round 
the location to call out a party to hunt him, being assured by 
our Hottentots that, as he had devoured only a small portion 



134 LION-HUNT. 

of the horse^ he would certainly be lurking in the vicinity. 
The huntsmen speedily assembled, to the number of seventeen 
horsemen, including Mulattoes and Hottentots ; bringing with 
them a goodly number of strong hounds. 

The first point was to track the lion to his covert. This 
was effected by a few of the Hottentots on foot. Commencing 
from the spot where the horse was killed, they foUowed the spoor , 
or track/^th rough grass, and gravel, and brushwood, with aston- 
ishing ease and dexterity, where an inexperienced eye could 
have discovered neither footprint nor mark of any kind, — until, 
at length, we fsdrly tracked him into a large hosch^ or strag- 
gling thicket of brushwood and evergreens, about a mile distanti 
The next object was to drive him out of this retreat, in order 
to attack him in a close phalanx, and with more safety and 
effect. The approved mode in such cases is to torment the 
animal with dogs till he abandons his covert, and comes forth 
into the open plain. The whole band of hunters then march 
forward together, and fire deliberately, either one by one, or in 
volleys. If he does not speedily fall, but grows furious, and 
advances upon his assailants, they must then stand close in a 
circle, and turn their horses' rear outward ; some holding them 
fast by the bridles, while the others kneel to take a steady aim 
at the lion as he approaches, as he will sometimes do up to the 
very horses' heels, — crouching every now and then, as if to 
measure the distance and strength of his enemies. This is the 
moment to shoot him fairly in the forehead, or in some other 
mortal part. \i they continue to wound him ineffectually till 
he waxes desperate ; or if the horses, startled by his terrific 
roar, grow frantic with terror, and burst loose, the business 
becomes rather serious, and may end in mischief— especially 
if all the party are not men of courage, coolness, and experience. 
The frontier Boors are, however, generally such excellent marks- 
men, and withal so cool and deliberate, that they seldom iiedl to 
shoot him dead as soon as they get within a suitable distance. 
In the present instance, we did not manage matters quite so 
discreetly. The Mulattoes, aft6r recounting to us all these and 



LION-HUNT. 135 

Other sage laws of lion-hunting, were themselves the first to 
depart from them. Finding that our hounds made little 
impression on the lion, they divided themselves into two or 
three parties, and rode round the jungle, firing into the spot 
where the dogs were harking round him, but without effect. 
At length, after some hours spent in thus beating about the 
bush> the Scottish blood of some of my countrymen began to 
get impatient ; and three of them, Messrs. George and John 
Rennie, and James Ekron, a servant of my father's, announced 
their determination to march in and beard the lion in his den, 
provided three of the Mulattoes, who were superior marksmen, 
would support them, and follow up their fire should the enemy 
venture to give battle. Accordingly, in they went, (in spite 
of the warnings of some more prudent men among us,) to 
within fifteen or twenty paces of the spot where the animal lay 
concealed. He was couched among the roots of a large ever« 
green bush, with a small space of open ground on one side of 
it ; and they fancied on approaching that they saw him distinctly, 
lying glaring at them from under the foliage. Charging their 
coloured allies to stand firm, and level fair should they miss, 
the Scottish champions let fly together, and struck — not the 
lion, as it afterwards proved, but a great block of red stone, 
beyond which he was actually lying. Whether any of the shot 
grazed him is uncertain, but, with no other warning than a 
furious growl, forth he bolted from the bush. The Mulattoes, 
in place of now pouring in their volley upon him, instantly 
turned and fled helter-skelter, leaving him to do his pleasure 
upon the defenceless Scots, — who, with empty guns, were 
tumbling over each other in their hurry to escape the clutch 
of the rampant savage. In a twinkling he was upon them — 
and with one stroke of his paw dashed John Rennie (my brother- 
in-law, to the ground. The scene was terrific I There stood 
the lion with his foot upon his prostrate foe, looking round in 
conscious power and pride upon the bands of his assailants,-— 
and with a port the most noble and imposing that can be 
conceived. It was the most magnificent thing I ever witnessed. 



136 LION*UUNT. 

The danger of our friends, howeyer, rendered it at the moment 
too terrible to enjoy fully either the grand or the Indicrous part 
of the picture. We expected every instant to see one or more 
of them torn in pieces ; nor, though the rest of us were stand- 
ing within Bfty paces, with our guns cocked and lerelled, durst 
we fire for their assistance. One was lying under the lion's 
paw, and the others scrambling towards us in such a way as to 
intercept our aim at him. All this passed hr more rapidly 
than I have described it. But luckily the lion, after steadily 
surveying us for a few seconds, seemed willing to be quits with 
us on iair terms; and, with a fortunate forbearance, turned 
calmly away, and driving the hounds like rats from among his 
heels, bounded over the adjoining thicket like a cat over a 
footstool, clearing brakes and bushes twelve or fifteen feet high 
as readily as if they had been tufts of grass, and, abandoning 
the jungle, retreated towards the mountains. 

After ascertaining the state of our rescued comrade, (who 
fortunately had sustained no other injury than a bloody scratch 
on the back, and a severe bruise in the ribs, from the force 
with which the animal had dashed him to the ground,) we 
renewed the chase with our Hottentot alliesj and hounds in fall 
cry. In a short time we again came up with the enemy, and 
found him standing at bay under an old mimosa tree, by the 
side of a mountain stream which we had distinguished by the 
name of Huntly Bum. The dogs were barking round, but 
afraid to approach him, — for he was now beginning to growl 
fiercely, and to brandish his tail in a manner that showed he 
was meditating mischief. The Hottentots, by taking a circuit 
between him and the mountain, crossed the stream, and took 
their station on the top of a precipice overlooking the spot 
where he stood. Another party of us occupied a position on the 
other side of the glen ; and placing the poor lion thus between 
two fires, which confused his attention and prevented his 
retreat, we kept battering away at him till he fell, unable 
again to grapple with us, pierced with many wounds. 

He proved to be a large full-grown lion, about six years of 



LION-HUNT. 137 

age, as our coloured friends affirmed. He measared fully eleven 
feet from the nose to the tip of the tail. His fore-leg below 
the knee was so thick that I could not span it with both hands ; 
and his neck, breast, and limbs appeared, when the skin was 
taken off, a complete congeries of sinews. His head, which 
seemed almost as large as that of an ordinary ox, I caused to 
be boiled for the purpose of preserving the skull*, and tasted 
the flesh from curiosity. It resembled very white coarse beef, 
rather insipid, but without any very disagreeable flavour. 

Our neighbours^ the Nimrods of the Tarka, disapproved 
highly of our method of attacking this lion in the bush, and 
said it was a wonder he did not destroy some of us. They 
were highly diverted with the discomfiture of our three cham- 
pions ; and the story of *' Jan Rennie en de Leeuw*' long con- 
tinued to be one of their constant jokes against the Scotchmen, 
— at which I have often seen some of them laugh till the tears 
ran over their cheeks. However, the Scotchmen, and especially 
the Rennies, were not long in redeeming their credit as hunts- 
men equally adroit as adventurous. 

Several other lions were killed at Glen-Lynden and its vici- 
nity, during my residence there ; but I shall content myself 
with the description of another hunt, extracted from a letter, 
written by my friend Mr. Phillips, of Glendour in Albany, 
who happened to be at the time on a visit to me. Being no 
great Nimrod myself, I was not present on this occasion. 

After describing the rousing of the lion in a wild desert plain 
near the Zwart-Kei river, in the country of the Amatembu 
Caffers, Mr. Phillips proceeds : — 

** The lion abandoned the grove of mimosas, and we followed 
him in full cry across the open plain. The Cafifers, who had 
just come up and mixed among us, could scarcely clear them- 
selves of our horses ; and their dogs howling and barking — we 



♦ The skin of this lion, after heing rudely tanned hy our Hottentots, was, 
together with the skull, transmitted to Sir Walter Scott, as a testimony of the 
author^s regard ; and these trophies have now the honour to form part of the orna- 
ments of the lamented Poet's antique armoury at Abbotsford. 



138 LIOM-HUNT« 

hallooing — the lion fiill in view, making for a small copse about 
a mile distant, with the great number and yarietj of antelopes 
on our left, sc oaring off in different directions, formed altogether 
one of the most animating spectacles that the annals of sport- 
ing could produce. 

<< Diederik Muller and Lieut. Sheppard beingp on very 
spirited horses, were the foremost. Christian Muller gare the 
signal to dismount when we were about two hundred yards 
from the copse. He desired us to be quick in tying the horses; 
which was done as fast as each came up ; and now — there was 
no retreating. We were on lower ground than the lion, with 
not a bush around us. The plan was, to advance in a body* 
leaving our horses with the Hottentots, who were to keep their 
backs towards the lion, for fear they should become unruly at 
the sight of him. 

'< These preparations occupied only a few seconds, and were 
not quite completed when we heard him growl, and imagined 
he was making off again. But no I — as if to retrieve his cha- 
racter from suspicion of cowardice for his former flighty he had 
made up his mind to attack us in his turn. To the growl 
succeeded a terrific roar ; — and at the same instant we beheld 
him bearing down upon us, his eyeballs glaring with rage. We 
were taken unprepared — his motion was so rapid no one could 
take aim ; and he furiously darted at one of the horses, whilst 
we were at their heads, without a possibility of preventing it. 
The poor horse sprang forward, and with the force of the action 
wheeled all the otber horses round with him. The lion like- 
wise wheeled, but immediately couched at less than ten yards 
from us. Our left flank thus became exposed ; but on it fortu- 
nately stood Christian Muller and Mr. G. Rennie. What an 
anxious moment I For a few seconds we beheld the monster at 
this little distance meditating, as it were, on whom he should 
first spring. Never did I long so ardently to hear the report 
of a gun. We looked at them taking aim — and then at the 
lion. It was absolutely necessary to give him a mortal shot, or 
the consequences might be fatal to some of the party. Every 



NOTICES OF OTHER ANIMALS. 139 

second seemed a minute. At length Christian fired. The 
under jaw of the lion dropped, blood gushed from his mouth— 
and he turned round with a view to escape. Mr. Rennie then 
shot him through the spine, and he fell. 

** At this moment he looked grand beyond expression. 
Turning again towards us, he rose upon his fore feet — ^his mouth 
gushing blood — his eyes flashing vengeance. He attempted 
to spring at us^ but his hind legs denied him aid. He dragged 
them a little space, when Stephanus put a final period to his 
existence, by shooting him through the brain. He was a noble 
animal^ measuring nearly twelve feet, including the tail.** 

Besides the lion, there are not fewer than five species of the 
genvLsfelis found in the colony, which are known by the local 
names of tiger, berg-tiger, luipaard, tiger-hosch-kat (serval?), 
roode-kat (caracal?), and wilde-kat (felis Capensis). The 
&rst of these, which is the real leopard (filis leopardus) is 
ooi^derably the largest and most formidable. The berg-tiger 
has not, so far as I know, been distinctly classed by naturalists. 
tiiie animal called ^^oarc? by the Dutch- African colonists, and 
generally considered to be the Jelis Jubata, is far inferior to the 
real leopard both in size and beauty. 

The South-African leopard differs from the panther of 
Northern Africa in the form of its spots, in the more slender 
structure of its body, and in the legs not being so long in pro- 
portion to its size. In watching for his prey the leopard 
crouches on the ground, with his fore-paws stretched out and 
his head between them, his eyes rather directed upwards. His 
appearance in a wild state is exceedingly beautifnl, his motions 
in the highest d^ree easy and graceful, and his agility in 
bounding among the rocks and woods quite amazing. Of this 
activity no person can have any idea by seeing these animals 
in the cages in which they are usually exhibited in Europe, 
humbled and tamed as they are by confinement and the damp 
cold of our climate. 

The leopard is chiefly found in the mountainous districts of 



140 LSOPARD-HUKT. 

South Afnca, where he prejs on such of the antelopes ts be 
can surprise, on baboons, and on the dat^ or coney (fi^frag 
Capemii). He is yeij mudi dreaded by the Ciqpe &nnef8 also, 
for his ravages among the flocks, and among the young ibak 
and calves in the breeding season. 

In the Colony, the leopard is shyer and mucb more in awe 
of man than among the native tribes beyond the bofundarj. 
But though he seldom or never ventures to attack mankind, 
except when driven to extremity, yet in remote places his low 
half-smothered growl is firequently heard at night, as he prowls 
around^ seeking for an opportunity to break into the sheep-fold. 
I have myself frequently heard his voice on such occasions. 

The leopard, like the hysena, is of);en caught in traps, con- 
structed of large stones and timber upon the same principle as 
a common mouse trap. When thus caught he is usually baited 
with dogs, in order to train them to contend with him^ and 
seldom dies without killing one or two of his canine antagonists. 
When hunted in the fields he instinctively betakes himself to 
a tree, if one should be within reach. In this situation it is 
dangerous to approach within reach of his spring ; but at the 
same time, from his exposed position, he becomes an easy prey 
to the huntsman. They were frequently shot on our location. 

The African leopard, though far inferior to the lion or 
Bengal tiger in strength and intrepidity, and though he usually 
shuns a conflict with man, is nevertheless an exceedingly active 
and furious animal, and when driven to desperation becomes a 
formidable antagonist. The Cape colonists relate instances of 
frightful and sometimes fatal encounters between the hunted 
leopard and his pursuers. The following is a specimen of these 
adventures. It occurred in 1822, in the interior of the colony, 
and is heregiven as it was related by an individual who knew 
the parties engaged in it. 

Two African farmers, returning from hunting the hartebeeit, 
roused a leopard in, a mountain ravine, and immediately gave 
chase to him. The leopard at first endeavoured to escape by 
clambering up a precipice; but being hotly pressed and 



FEROCITY OF THE CAPE LEOPARD. 141 

wounded by a musket-ball, he turned upon bis pursuers 
with the frantic ferocity peculiar to this animal on such 
emergencies, and springing upon the man who had fired at 
him, he pulled him to the ground, biting him at the same 
time on the shoulder, and tearing one of his cheeks severely 
with his claws. The other hunter, seeing the danger of his 
comrade, sprang from his horse and attempted to shoot the 
leopard through the head ; but, whether owing to trepidation, 
or the fear of wounding his friend, or the quick motions of the 
animal, he unfortunately missed. The leopard, abandoning his 
prostrate enemy, darted with redoubled fury upon this second 
antagonist, and so fierce and sudden was his onset, that before 
the boor could stab him with his hunting-knife, the savage 
beast struck him on the face with his claws, and actually tore 
the scalp over his eyes. In this frightful condition the hunter 
grappled with the leopard, and, struggling for life, they rolled 
together down a steep declivity. All this passed faj more 
rapidly than it can be described in words. Before the man 
who had been first attacked could start to his feet and seize his 
gun, they were rolling one over the other down the bank. In 
a minute he had reloaded his gun, and rushed forward to save 
the life of his friend. But it was too late. The leopard had 
seized the unfortunate man by the throat, and mangled him so 
dreadfully that death was inevitable ; and his comrade (himself 
severely wounded) had only the melancholy satisfiiction of 
completing the destruction of the savage beast, already ex- 
hausted with the loss of blood from several deep wounds from 
the knife of the expiring huntsman. 

Of the ferocity of the Cape leopard, another example occurred 
in the case of the Moravian missionary Mr. Schmitt, whom 
I met at Enon. This worthy man had gone out with a party 
of Hottentots at another Moravian station to hunt some 
hyaenas which had been very destructive to their flocks ; and 
with one of the Hottentots entered a thicket in pursuit of a 
tiger-wolf that they had wounded. Their hounds, however, 
instead of the hyaena, started a leopard, which instantly sprang 



142 NOTICE OF THE HYANA. 

on the Hottentot and bore him to the ground. Mr. Schmitt ran 
forward to the aid of the man with his gun cocked ; but, before 
he could find an opportunity of firing, the animal left the 
Hottentot and flew with fury at himself. In the scuffle he 
dropt the gun, but luckily fell above the leopard with his knee 
on his stomach. The animal seized him by the left arm with 
its jaws, and kept striking him with its paws and tearing the 
clothes in tatters from his breast. Schmitt, however, being a 
powerful man, succeeded, after receiving another severe bite or 
two, in seizing the leopard by the throat with his right hand, 
and held it down, in spite of its desperate struggles, for a few 
minutes ; until, just as his strength was giving way, one of the 
Hottentots on the outside of the jungle, who heard his cries 
for help, came to his rescue and shot the ferocious beast right 
through the heart, so that its death was quite instantaneous. Had 
any life been left, its dying struggles might still have proved 
fatal to Mr. Schmitt. As it was, he was so terribly lacerated, 
that for several weeks his life was in the greatest danger. The 
Hottentot who was first attacked, was less severely wounded; 
but his face was so much torn by the animaFs talons, that his 
eyes were filled with blood, and he was unable to render any 
aid to the missionary who had so generously come to his 
rescue. 

Of all the beasts of prey, however, that inhabit South 
Africa, the common spotted hyaena (hycena crocutd), called by 
the colonists the tiger-wolf, is the most voracious and destmc- 
tive to the flocks. Were the courage of this animal equal to 
its strength, it would be exceedingly formidable, even to man 
himself — at least in a country where it exists in such num- 
bers ; but, happily, its cowardice is not less characteristic than 
its voracity. Though they are sometimes met with in packs 
or troops of twenty or more, I never heard of an instance of 
their attacking mankind either by day or night — ^within the 
colony. At the same time it ought to be remarked, that their 
awe of civilised man is probably greatly increased by his 
possession of the firelock; for among the Caffer tribes the 



TRAPPING OF HYENAS. 143 

same animal is found so much bolder, that he not unfre- 
quently attempts to enter the huts of the natives, and even 
occasionally devour children and infirm people. But, in the 
latter case, his audacity cannot fail to be greatly increased by 
the wretched superstitions which induce those people to expose 
the bodies of their dead to be entombed in the maw of this 
universal devourer, and which cause them to regard the hysena 
himself as a sort of sacred animal. 

One of the chief functions of the hyaena in the economy of 
nature appears to be that of carrion-scavenger, an office which 
he divides with the vulture. The lordly lion, the imperial 
eagle, always kill their own game. The hyaena and vulture 
come ai^er and gather up the o€als. This animal devours not 
only the remains of dead carcases, but also the hide and the 
bones, leaving nothing but the skull and a few of the larger 
joints, which baffie even his enormous strength of jaw. Of 
his efficiency and dexterity in this office I have seen innumer- 
able instances: one sample may suffice. When my horse 
"was killed by the lion, as already described, only a very small 
part of the carcase was devoured by the destroyer ; but next 
night the entire remains, bones and all, were carried off by the 
hyaenas ; and all that was ever afterwards discovered, was one 
of the hoofs and part of the skull, at a distance of several 
miles among the mountains. 

I have cursorily noticed in my diary (page 187) the depre- 
dations of the hyaenas in our folds, and our success in catching 
them in traps. For this contrivance we were indebted to the 
Hottentots. The trap was built of large loose stones, pre- 
cisely in the form, and on the same principle, as the common 
mouse-traps to be seen in England, with a hanging door, also 
of stone, sustained by a cord, and baited at the farther end 
i^th a dead dog, or the entrails of a sheep. By this simple 
contrivance we speedily entrapped several of the depredators 
that had so much harassed us ; and after having killed them 
with spears, their carcases were thrown out on the open plain. 
The smell of the hycena crocuta is so rank and offensive> that 



144 THE WILD DOG. 

scarcely any animal will come near the carcase. When thej 
are once fairly killed, eren dogs leare them with disgust. Yet 
none of those we destroyed ever remained two nights onde- 
Youred. Their own voracious kindred uniformly came in the 
night and ate them up, leaving scarcely a renmant of the 
skull and larger hones to show where the rest had found a 
sepulchre. 

Three other species of the hyaena are distinguished in the 
colonial nomenclature, as the strand-wolf, herg-wolfj and the 
wilde'hond. The strand-wolf is found exclusively on the 
coast, as its name denotes. It is larger than the tiger-wdf, 
and is said to he of a dark-grey colour. The herg-wolf, or 
mountain-hyaena, is also large, and of a lighter hue. I have 
only seen the latter at a distance^ and the strand-wolf not at 
all ; but their habits I was told are very similar to those of 
the tiger-wolf. The wilde-hondy or wild-dog {Jiy^ena vetta- 
tica) is an animal with which the colonists are but too well 
acquainted. It was first accurately described^ and classed as a 
hyaena, by Burchell. It forms in &ct the connecting link 
between the wolf and hyaena families, and in its habits and 
physical conformation partakes of the character of both. These 
animals always hunt in packs; they are swift of foot, and, 
though not so powerful, are much fiercer than the other 
species of hyaena. When they break into a fold, or &11 upon 
a fiock of sheep in the field, they frequently kill and mangle 
ten times as many as they could possibly devour : they are 
consequently much dreaded by the farmer. Some of them 
have been occasionally tamed by the colonists. The laughing'' 
hycBua, which I have repeatedly heard, but never seen, is 
reported by the colonists to be a distinct species, smaller than 
the three preceding ; and is considered (I know not with what 
justice) to form a sort of link between the hyaena and the 
jackall families. 

The hippopotamus still exists in the Great Fish river, 
towards its mouth, but it has become so scarce and shy as to 
be very seldom seen. It is more numerous in the Keisi. The 



THE BUFFALd. 145 

rhinoceros is nearly extirpated within the old limits of the 
colony ; and even in the Ceded Territory it was so rare, that 
in all my excursions I never could even catch a glimpse of 
one. In the regions lying east and north of our frontier, 
however, hippopotami ahound in all the larger rivers, and two 
species of rhinoceros inhahit the forests. 

Of the South African huffalo (bos coffer) I can also say but 
little from personal knowledge; for though once numerous 
in Glen-Lynden and the adjoining districts, (as many local 
names testify, such as Buffels-kloofy JBuffeh-hoeky JBuffels^ 
fontein, &c.) these animals are now so rare and so shy in that 
vicinity, that I never saw more than one or two, and of these 
I caught only a distant and hasty glance. The following 
particulars were obtained from Dutch- African huntsmen of 
my acquaintance. 

The buffalo is a very formidable and powerful animal. He 
is considerably larger than the domestic ox. The front of his 
head is nearly covered by an invulnerable helmet, formed of 
the extended roots of his gigantic horns ; and his skin is so 
tough that it is difficult to kill him with small guns, or 
without a mixture of tin to harden the bullets. He is 
described to be, what indeed his aspect appears strongly to 
indicate, an animal of a fierce, treacherous, and savage dispo- 
flition. Even when not provoked by wounds, or driven to ex- 
tremity in the chase, it is said he will attack with the utmost 
ferocity his great enemy man, if he happen to intrude in- 
cautiously upon his haunts ; and what renders him the more 
dangerous is his habit of skulking in the jungle when he 
observes travellers approaching, and then suddenly rushing 
out upon them. It has been remarked, too, (and this observ- 
ation has been corroborated by the accurate Swedish naturalist 
Sparrman,) that if he succeeds in killing a man by goring and 
tossing him, he will stand over his victim afterwards for a long 
time, trampling upon him with his hoofs, crushing him with 
his knees, mangling the body with his horns, and stripping off 
the skin with his rough and prickly tongue. This he does not 

H 



146 THE BUFFALO. 

do all at oDce, bat at inteirak, going away and again retorning^ 
as if more fully to glut his vengeance. 

Although I have no reason to question the troth of this 
description, it ought to be qualified by stating that though the 
buffalo will sometimes thus attack man, and even other animals^ 
without any obvious provocation, yet this malig^nant dispo- 
sition will be found, if accurately inquired into, the exception 
rather than the rule of the animal's ordinary habits. Though 
much fiercer as well as more powerful than the ox, and bold 
enough sometimes to stand stoutly on self-defence even against 
the lion, it is, 1 apprehend, nevertheless, his natural instinct 
to retire from the face of man, if undisturbed, rather than to 
provoke his hostility. The proofs that are adduced of his 
vicious and wanton malignity arise chiefly from the following 
cause. The males of a herd, especially at certain seasons of 
the year, contend furiously for the mastery ; and after many 
conflicts the unsuccessful competitcnrs are driven off, at least 
for a season, by their stronger rivals. These exiles, like some 
other species of animals under similar circumstances, (the 
elephant for instance,) are peculiarly mischievous ; and it is 
while skulking solitarily about the thickets, in this state of 
sulky irritation, that they most usually exhibit the dangerous 
disposition generally ascribed to the species. 

It is, nevertheless, very true that the Cape bujGUo is, at 
all times, a dangerous animal to hunt ; as, when wounded, or 
closely pressed, he will not unfrequently turn and run down 
his pursuer, whose only chance of escape in that case is the 
swiftness of his steed, if the huntsman be a Colonist or Euro- 
pean. The Hottentot, who is light and agile, and dextenmt 
in plunging like an antelope through the intricacies of an 
entangled forest, generally prefers following this game on foot 
Like all pursuits, where the spirit of enterprise is highly 
excited by some admixture of perilous adventure, buffalo-hunt- 
ing is passionately followed by those who once devote them* 
selves to it ; nor do the fatal accidents that occasionally occar 
appear to make any deep impression on those who witness 



BUFFALO-HUNTING. 147 

Ihem* The consequence is, that the buffalo is now nearly 
extirpated through every part of the Cape colony, except in 
the most extensive forests or jungles of the southern coast and 
eastern districts^ where, together with the elephant, he still 
finds a precarious shelter. 

The following incident in buffalo-hunting, may serve as a 
specimen of this rough pastime: it was related to me by a 
Dutch- African &rmer, who had been an eye-witness of the 
scene some fifteen years before. A party of boors had gone 
out to hunt a herd of buffaloes, which were grazing on a piece 
of marshy ground, interspersed with groves of yellow-wood 
and mimosa trees, on the very spot where the village of 
Somerset is now built. As they could not conveniently get 
within shot of the game without crossing part of the valet or 
marsh, which did not afford a safe passage for horses, they 
i^eed to leave their steeds in charge of their Hottentots, and 
to advance on foot; thinking that if any of the buffaloes 
should turn upon them, it would be easy to escape by retreat- 
ing across the quagmire, which, though passable for man, 
would not support the weight of a heavy quadruped. They 
advanced accordingly, and, under covert of the bushes, ap- 
proached the game with such advantage, that the first volley 
brought down three of the fattest of the herd, and so severely 
wounded the great bull leader that he dropped on his knees, 
bellowing furiously. Thinking him mortally wounded, the 
foremost of the huntsmen issued from the covert, and began 
reloading his musket as he advanced to give him a finishing 
shot* But no sooner did the infuriated animal see his foe in 
front of him, than he sprang up and rushed headlong upon 
him. The man, throwing down his heavy gun, fied towards 
the quagmire ; but the beast was so close upon him that he 
despaired of escaping in that direction, and turning suddenly 
round a clump of copsewood, began to dimb an old mimosa 
tree which stood at one side of it. The raging beast, how- 
ever, was too quick for him. Bounding forward with a roar, 
which my informant described as being one of the most 

h2 



148 THE 6NCJ. 

frightful sounds he ever heard, he caught the unfortunate man 
with his terrible horns, just as he had nearly escaped his reach, 
and tossed him into the air with such force that the body fell, 
dreadfully mangled, into a cleft of the tree. The buffalo ran 
round the tree once or twice, apparently looking for the man, 
until weakened with loss of blood he again sunk on his knees. 
The rest of the party, recovering from their confusion, then 
came up and despatched him, though too late to save their 
comrade, whose body was hanging in the tree quite dead. 

Of the numerous family of antelopes which inhabited our 
glens and mountains, I shall only particularly mention the 
gnuy which is now become rare in most parts of the colony. 
Some of these singular animals were always to be found on the 
mountain ridge which we called Hyndhope Fell, and in the 
environs of Winterberg. Though shy, they appeared to have 
a large share of curiosity ; bounding away when approached, 
and then returning again, in a sweeping circuit, to gaze on the 
traveller or huntsman ; spurring up the dust with their hoofs, 
tossing their manes, lashing their sides with their long tails, 
and performing other evolutions not a little amusing. They 
are said to be strongly affected if a red flag be exhibited to 
them, but I never had an opportunity of trying the experi- 
ment. They are fierce and dangerous when wounded. I tried 
to rear a young one which a hunting party had brought home 
with them (the poor animal following the horsemen when its 
dam was shot), but it soon pined and died. They have been 
frequently tamed by the boors, when thus caught young ; but 
are said, when grown up, to become mischievous. The flesh, 
though of a wildish flavour, is more juicy than that of any 
other antelope that I have tasted, and has more the appearance 
of beef. The animal appears, in fact, to form an intermediate 
« link between the antelope and the bovine families. 

Tlie distinctive characteristics of the other Cape antelopes 
are now so well described in many popular works, that I need 
not occupy my pages with details which at best would be but 
desultory and defective. I shall only remark that this family 



THE QUAGOA. 149 

of animals cbAsists, in South Africa, of not fewer than twenty- 
three distinct species, ranging in size from the blaawbok, or 
pigmy antelope, which seldom exceeds ten inches in height, to 
the elandy as tall as the common ox, though more slender in 
its shape, and weighing from 700 to 1,000 pounds. This last 
named animal, which is the antilope oreas of naturalists, is, 
I believe, now nearly extirpated in every part of the colony. 
The only herds I ever saw were in the immediate vicinity of 
the Winterberg, and in some other parts of the Ceded Territory. 

The quagga^ whose flesh is carrion, and even whose hide is 
almost useless, might be permitted, one would suppose, to 
range unmolested on his native mountains ; but man, when he 
has no other motive, delights to destroy for the mere sake of 
pastime. Thus the poor quagga, in the absence of better 
game, is often pursued for sport alone. It is a timid animal, 
with a gait and figure much resembling those of the ass, 
though it is much stouter and handsomer than that animal as 
found in Europe, In swiftness it is inferior to the horse ; but 
it bafHes the huntsman by flying for refuge to the most rugged 
parts of the mountains, where the horse can only follow with 
great difficulty. Timid as it is, however, even the quagga, 
when driven to desperation, will sometimes turn on its de- 
stroyer. A remarkable instance of this occurred within my 
knowledge. A young boor was pursuing a herd of quaggas, 
and being close upon some exhausted ones^ attempted, for the 
sake merely of saving his shot, to drive one of them over a 
precipice ; on which the desperate animal turned round, and 
seizing him by the leg with its teeth, dragged him from his 
horse, and actually tore his foot off at the ankle I The con- 
sequences were fatal to the huntsman ; for, in spite of medical 
aid, mortification ensued, and he died a few days afterwards. 

In noticing the wild animals of our vicinity, I cannot omit 
the ursine or dog-faced baboon {cercopithecus ursinus^ or simia 
cynocephaliLs)^ which inhabits the hills and rocks of Glen- 
Lynden in great numbers, and from which the river derived 
its former Dutch appellation. This animal is found in all the 



150 THB URSINE BABOON. 

moantainoiis districts of the Cape colony ; and is known to 
naturalists from the descriptions of Spamnan, VaiUant, Bor- 
cheU, and other scientific travellers. It is an animal of very 
considerable strength, and attains, when fall grown, the size of 
a very large Newfoundland dog. It resembles the dog in the 
shape of its head, and is covered with shaggy hair, of a greenish 
brown colour, except on the fiu», paws, and romp, which are 
bare and black. On level ground it always goes on all-fours ; 
but among the rocks and precipices, which are its natural 
refuge and habitation^ it uses its hinder feet and hands some- 
what as a human being would do, only with inconceivably 
greater boldness and agility, in clambering up the crags, or 
in springing from cliff to cliff. 

The ursine baboon is not believed to be in any degree car- 
nivorous, but subsists on wild fruits, and principally on the 
numerous variety of edible roots and bulbs which abound in 
the districts it inhabits. These roots it digs out of the earth 
with its paws, the nails of which, from this cause, are generally 
short, as if worn down by constant use ; in other respects they 
nearly resemble those of the human hand. 

For defence against its enemies, such as the leopard, hysBna, 
wild dog, &c., the ursine baboon is armed with formidable 
canine teeth, nearly an inch long ; and, when driven to extre- 
mity, will defend itself successfully against the fiercest w(^f- 
hound. It has a mode of g^ppling its antagonist by the 
throat with its fore^paws, while it tears open the jugular artery 
with its tusks. In this manner I have known a stout baboon 
despatch several dogs before he was overpowered ; and I have 
been assured by the natives that even the leopard is sometimes 
defeated and worried to death by a troop of these animals. It 
is only collectively, however, and in large bands, that they can 
successfully oppose this powerful enemy. In many of the 
mountainous districts, the leopard, it is said, subsists chi^yby 
preying upon baboons and monkeys ; lying in wait and pouncing 
upon them suddenly, precisely as the domestic cat deals with 
rats. 



THE URSINE BABOON. 151 

' Though thus armed for conflict, the ursine bahoon, except 
in self-defence> appears to be a harmless and inoffensive animal. 
They are, it is true, occasionally troublesome to mankind, by 
robbing gardens, orchards, and corn-fields, but I never heard of 
anybody being spontaneously attacked by them. There is, 
indeed, one remarkable story told of a party of these animals 
carrying off an infiint from the vicinity of Wynberg, a village 
about seven miles from Cape Town, and, on the alarm being 
given by the distracted mother, retreating with it to the 
summit of the precipitous mountains, 3000 feet in height, 
which overlook that pleasant village. My informants, persons 
of respectability, assured me that this incident had occurred 
within their own recollection, and that the child was recovered 
by a party of the inhabitants, after a long, anxious, and perilous 
pursuit, without having sustained any injury. This singular 
abduction, the only instance of the kind I ever heard of, may, 
after all, have been prompted possibly by the erratic maternal 
feeling of some female baboon, bereaved of her own offspring, 
rather than by any mischievous propensity. 

Be this as it may, the strong attachment of these creatures 
to their own young is an interesting trait of their character. I 
have frequently witnessed very affecting instances of this attach- 
ment, when a band of them happened to be discovered by some of 
the African colonists in their orchards or corn-fields. On such 
occasions, when hunted back to the mountains with dogs and 
guns, the females, if accidentally separated from their young 
ones, would often return, reckless of their own safety, to search 
for them through the very midst of their pursuers. 

vOn more peaceful occasions, also, I have very often contem- 
plated them with great pleasure and interest. It is the practice 
of these animals to descend from their rocky fastnesses, in order 
to enjoy themselves on the banks of the mountain rivulets, and 
to feed on the nutritious bulbs which grow in the alluvial soil 
of the valleys. While thus occupied, they usually take care to 
be within reach of some steep crag or precipice, to which they 
may fly £or refuge on the appearance of an enemy ; and some of 



132 TROOPS OF BABOONS^ 

their number are always stationed as sentinels on large stones 
or other elevated situations, in order to giye timely warning 
to the rest of the approach of danger. It has frequently been 
my lot, when riding through these secluded valleys, to come 
suddenly, on turning the comer of a rock, upon a troop of 
forty or fifty baboons thus quietly congregated. Instantly on 
my appearance, a loud cry of alarm would be raised by the 
sentinels, and then the whole band would scamper off with the 
utmost precipitation. Off they would go, hobbling on all- 
fours, after their awkward &shion on level ground ; splashing 
through the stream, if they had it to cross ; then clambering, 
with most marvellous agility, up the rocky cliffs, often many 
hundred feet in height, and where certainly no other creature 
without wings could possibly follow them; the large males 
bringing up the rear-guard, ready to turn with fury upon 
the hounds if they attempted to molest them ; the females 
with their young ones in their arms, or clinging to their backs. 
Thus, climbing, and chattering, and squalling, they would 
ascend the perpendicular and perilous-looking crags, while I 
looked on and watched them, interested by the almost human 
affection which they evinced for their mates and their offspring ; 
and sometimes not a little amused, also, by the angry vocifera- 
tion with which the old satyr-like leaders would scold me, 
when they had got fairly upon the rocks, and felt themselves 
secure from pursuit. 

There are other species of the ape family in South Africa, 
and a very beautiful bluish-green monkey inhabits the forests; 
but with those I cannot pretend to any particular acquaintance. 

There are several other animals that fell more or less under 
my observation, on whose appearance or habits I should have 
been inclined to have made a few remarks, had the extension 
of these notices been compatible with the limits that I must 
necessarily prescribe to myself. Among these are — ^the bosch' 
varky or wood-swine (sus (Bthiopicus)t a fierce animal, and 
armed with dangerous tusks, which protrude like those of the 
elephant ; the African ant-eater (^otycteropus, or myrmecophaga 



THE SECRETARY BIRD, 153 

eapensis), called aard-varky or earth-pig, by the colonists, from 
its habit of burrowing in the earth — a shy and timid creature, 
which lires entirely upon ants ; the spring-htzas, leaping- hare, 
or Cape jerboa (dipiLs, or pedetes caffer)^ an animal which also 
burrows in the earth, and which, in some points, seems to 
form a sort of link between the hare and the kangaroo ; the 
porcupine (hystrix cristata) ; the das^ or rock-rabbit ( hyrax 
€apensis)f &c. 

In the feathered kingdom, as well as in other departments 
of zoology, the Cape exhibits great richness and yariety ; but 
on this subject I must refer the reader to Vaillant's splendid 
work on the Ornithology of South A;frica. I shall only here 
notice the singular secretary-bird, or serpent-eater (^Jhlco 
^erpentarius). The former name is a mere fanciful appella- 
tion ; the latter truly indicates its habits. With the legs of a 
crane, and the head of an eagle, the secretary belongs to the 
class of rapacious birds, and is now placed by naturalists between 
the eagles and vultures. In South Africa his presence is a 
peculiar blessing to the natives ; for they are indebted to him 
for the destruction of a vast quantity of insects and reptiles, 
whose multiplication, unless their numbers were thus kept 
down, would be a formidable calamity. These birds always 
kill their prey before swallowing it. Whether the secretary 
4neet with a serpent or a tortoise, he invariably crushes it under 
the sole of his foot ; and such is the skill and force with which 
he gives the blow, that it is very rarely that a serpent of an 
inch or more in diameter survives the first stroke. When he 
meets with a serpent that is large enough to oppose a long 
resistance to him, he flies off with his prey in his beak, to a 
great height, and then dropping it, follows it in its descent with 
wonderful rapidity, so as to be ready to strike it when it falls 
stunned on the ground. Vaillant describes an obstinate battle 
between a secretary and a large serpent, in which the bird 
struck his enemy with the bony protuberance of his wing \ but 
the mode of crushing with his foot is the more common. In 
general these birds exhibit no fierceness, and they are easily 
domesticated. 

h3 



154 HANGINO KESTS OF THE WEAVER-BIRD. 

Passing over the other feathered tribes, from the magnificeDt 
eagles of the Winterberg to the tiny but brilliant-plumed 
family of sagar-birds (nectarinuF), which flutter like insects 
round the blossoms, I shall mention only in passing the 
singular contriyances of those species of the weayer-bird which 
suspend their nests from the branches of trees. The object of 
this precaution is obyiously to secure their offspring from the 
assaults of their numerous enemies, particularly the serpent 
race. To increase the difficulty of access to these * tree-rocked 
cradles/ they usually impend oyer a riyer or precipice, while 
the entrance is always from below, and frequently through 
a cylindrical passage of twelye or fifteen inches in length, 
projecting from the spherical nest, exactly like the tube of a 
chemist's retort. The whole fabric is most ingeniously and 
elegantly woyen of a species of tough grass ; and the wonder- 
ful instinct or foresight (or whateyer else we may choose to 
call it) displayed by the little architect in its construction is 
calculated to excite the highest admiration. I haye ofi;en 
seen twenty or more of these beautiful nests hanging firom a 
single tree. 

I must not omit to say something also of the serpents, a 
class of the animal creation for which Africa is so renowned. 
The species commonly accounted the most dangerous at the 
Cape are the cohra-capella (which is not the cobra di capeU& 
of India), the puff-adder (vipera inflata) and the berg^adder 
(or mountain snake). The first of these is exceedingly fierce 
and actiye, and sometimes, it is said, attains the formidable 
length of six of seyen feet ; I haye, howeyer, neyer met with 
any of more than fiye. The cobra has been known to spring 
at a man on horseback, and to dart himself with such force as 
to oyershoot his aim. The puff-adder, on the other hand, is a 
heayy and sluggish animal, yery thick in proportion to its 
length, and incapable, when attacked in front, of projecting 
itself upon its enemy. To make amends, howeyer, it possesses 
the faculty of throwing itself backward with perilous and 
unexpected effect* But its disposition is inert, and unless 
accidentally trod upon, or otherwise proyoked, it will seldom 



SERPENTS. 155 

attack mankind. The berg-adder, though much smaller in 
size than either of the preceding, is generally considered not 
less deadly, and it is the more dangerous ^m its being less 
easily discovered and avoided. 

There is another species of serpent a good deal dreaded by 
the natives, from whom I obtained the following account of it. 
It is about three feet in length : its bite, though poisonous, is 
not fatal ; but its peculiar property is the faculty it possesses 
of spouting its venom in the fsLce of an assailant, or of any 
person approaching it within three or four paces, when the 
wind is in its favour. From this singular faculty, it is called 
by the Cape colonists the spuig-slang, or spirting-snake. 
If the venom enters the eyes, towards which the animal is 
supposed by instinct to squirt it, immediate blindness ensues. 
Several instances of permanent loss of sight from this cause 
were mentioned to me by intelligent Hottentots, whose veracity 
I bad no reason to question. 

There are several species of snakes which have come under 
my own observation, such as the nacht-slang (night-adder), the 
schcuip'Steeker (sheep-stinger), one species of the boom-slangy 
(tree-snake), the (ringel-hals ring-throat), with a variety of 
others which I have not seen, and whose Cape names I have 
forgotten, which are also considered venomous, though not 
so deadly as the' three species first mentioned. The real pro- 
perties and habits of the numerous varieties of the serpent 
tribe which infest Southern Africa are still, in fact, but very 
imperfectly known to the naturalists ; and several of those 
reputed venomous by the colonists are probably harmless. 
Some men of science at the Cape have, however, recently 
directed their attention to this subject, and there is reason to 
anticipate much new and curious information from the zeal and 
ability with which the illustration of this as well as of other 
neglected departments of South African zoology is now pro- 
secuted. 

During my residence in the Cape Colony, and in the course 
of various journeys through the interior, I met with a con- 



156 ANECDOTES OF SNAKES* 

siderable number of snakes ; yet I do not recollect ever being 
exposed, except in one instance, to any imminent danger from 
these reptiles. On the occasion referred to I was superintend- 
ing some Hottentots, whom I had employed to clear away a 
patch of thicket from a spot selected for cultivation, when one 
of the men suddenly recoiling, with signs of great alarm, ex- 
claimed that there was a cohrorcapella in the bush. Not being 
atthat time fully aware of the dangerous character of this 
species, I approached to look at him. The Hottentots called 
out to me to take care, for he was going to spring* Before 
they had well spoken, or I had caught a view of the reptile, 
I heard him hiss liercely, and then dart himself towards me 
amidst the underwood. At the same instant, instinctively 
springing backward to avoid him, I fell over a steep bank into 
the stony bed of the Lynden ; by which I suffered some severe 
bruises, but fortunately escaped the more formidable danger to 
which I had too incautiously exposed myself. The Hotten- 
tots then assailed the snake with sticks and stones, and forced 
him (though not before he had made another spring and missed 
one of them still more narrowly than myself) to take refuge up 
a mimosa tree. Here he became a safe and easy mark to 
their missiles, and was speedily beaten down, with a broken 
back, and consequently incapable of further mischief* The 
Hottentots having cut off his head, carefully buried it in the 
ground, a practice which they never omit on such occasions, 
and which arises from their apprehension of some one incauti- 
ously treading on the head of the dead snake, and sustaining 
injury from its fangs ; for they believe that the deathfrd virus, 
far from being extinguished with life, retains its fatal energy 
for weeks, and even months afterwards. This snake measured 
nearly tive feet in length. 

My Hottentot corporal, Piet Spandilly, who assisted in 
killing this cobra, had a still narrower escape from a small but 
venomous snake, of which I have forgotten the Colonial appel- 
lation. Piet and his men (soldiers of the Cape Corps) were in 
a tent adjoining to mine, while I was erecting my second but ; 



ANECDOTES OF SNAKES. 157 

and one morning when he rose from his couch of dry grass, 
Piet felt some living creature moving ahout his thigh in the 
inside of his leathern trowsers. Thinking it was only one of 
the harmless lizards which swarm in every part of South Africa, 
he did not at first much mind it, but came out to the open air, 
laughing, and shaking his limb to dislodge the crawling reptile. 
But when a black wriggling snake came tumbling down about 
his naked ankles, poor Spandilly leaped high in the air, utter- 
ing a cry of horror ; and, though he had in reality sustained no 
injury, could scarcely for some time be persuaded that he was 
not a dead man. 

It is, in fact, from the apprehension of danger, or the instinct 
of self-defence, far more than from any peculiar fierceness or 
innate malignity, that the serpent race ever assail man or any 
of the larger animals. They turn, of course, against the foot 
that tramples, or the hand that threatens them ; but happily 
nature has not armed them, in addition to their formidable 
powers of destruction, with the disposition of exerting those 
powers from motives of mere wanton malignity, or for pur- 
poses unconnected with their own subsistence or security. 
Were it otherwise, countries like the Cape would be altogether 
uninhabitable. As it is, the annoyance experienced from the 
•numerous snakes is not such as, on the whole, to affect the 
comfort of those accustomed to it in any considerable degree. 

Conversing on this subject one day with my friend Captain 
Harding, I inquired whether he had ever, in the course of his 
campaigns in the Caifer and Bushman countries, and when 
necessarily obliged to sleep in the desert or jungle in the open 
air, suffered injury or incurred danger from serpents. He 
replied, that the only occasion he recollected of being in any 
great hazard of this sort was the following. Being upon a 
military expedition across the frontier, he had slept one night, 
as usual, wrapt in his cloak, beneath a tree. On awakening at 
day-break, the first object he perceived on raising his head 
from the saddle, which served for a pillow, was the tail of an 
enormous puff-adder lying across his breast, the head of the 



158 ANECDOTES OF SNAKES. 

reptile being muffled under the folds of his cloak close to his 
body, whither it had betaken itself, apparently, for warmth 
during the chillness of the night. There was extreme hazard 
that if he alarmed it by his moving, it might bite him in a 
vital part. Seizing it therefore softly by the tail, he pulled it 
out with a sudden jerk, and threw it violently to a distance. 
By this means he escaped without injury. 

An incident, scarcely less alarming, occurred to the wife of 
the officer just mentioned. She was sleeping with her infismt 
upon a camp-bed in a little clay-built cabin, such as are used 
by the military in their temporary cantonments in that fine 
climate,— -when looking up one morning, she perceived a snake 
making its way through the thatch, almost directly above her 
couch, and swinging with its body to and fro, with its little 
malignant eyes gleaming upon her face. She screamed in 
terror, and covered up her child, in instant apprehension of the 
reptile's descent. Before the servant answered her call, it had 
in fi»ct wriggled its way through the thatch, and fallen into the 
I'oom, but fortunately without any attempt to injure the lady 
or her child. When destroyed, it proved not to be of a very 
dangerous species. 

Somewhat similar was the situation, on one occasion, of 
Mrs. Devenish, another lady of my acquaintance. Going into her 
nursery one night, she found a puff-adder standing erect on its 
tail, by the side of the cradle where her infant lay asleep. She 
screamed in horror, but durst not approach for fear that the 
reptile, which began to hiss and inflate its jaws, as it usually 
does when irritated, should spring upon the child. Fortunately 
her husband was at hand, and, hearing her outcry, hastened 
to her aid, and with a single blow destroyed the serpent. 

It is not very unusual, indeed, for snakes of various sorts to 
be found in the houses at the Cape, nor does it, in ordinary 
cases, excite any violent alarm when such inmates are dis- 
covered. They make their way both through the roofs and under 
the walls, in search of food and shelter, and especially in pursuit 
of mice, which many of them chiefly subsist upon. During my 



THEIR BITES SELDOM FATAL. 159 

residence in the interior, however, I recollect only two instances 
of their being found in my own cabin. On one of these 
occasions I had sent a servant girl (a bare-legged Hottentot) 
to bring me some article from a neighbouring hut. On return- 
ing with it, she cried out before entering the cabin — ** Oh, 
what shall I do ?• A snake has twined itself round my ankles, 
and if I open the door he will come into the house." " Never 
mind," I replied : *' open the door, and let him come in if he 
dare.'' She obeyed, and in glided the snake> luckily without 
having harmed the poor girl. I stood prepared, and instantly 
smote him dead ; and afterwards found him to be one of the 
venomous sort called nachtslang. 

People become used to these things, and even Europeans by 
degrees come to regard them with much indifference. While 
on a visit at the late worthy Major Pigot's, near Graham's 
Town, one day on going to take a book from some shelves in 
the drawing-room, I found a beautiful yellow snake, about six 
feet long, lying asleep upon the uppermost range of books. 
At first I took it for a stuffed specimen ; but seeing him move 
bis tail^ I instantly lent him such a thwack as broke the poor 
fellow's back, and enabled me to demolish him at leisure. I 
afterwards learned that another snake had been killed a few 
days previously in the very same spot, and a third in the 
chamber where my wife and I slept. But they were all of 
the hoom'slang i&mily, and perfectly harmless. 

Annoying and alarming as is the occasional presence of these 
reptiles in the gardens and chambers of the inhabitants in 
South Africa, the number of fatal accidents resulting from 
them is nevertheless remarkably few. Out of nearly five 
thousand British emigrants settled in Albany, I have not heard 
of more than three or four deaths in a dozen years occasioned 
by the bite of snakes ; and I was informed by the Rev. Mr. Hall- 
beck, superintendent of Moravian missions, that among seven 
or eight hundred Hottentots, usually resident at the village of 
Genadendal, only two deaths had occurred from this cause 
during seven years that he had resided there. Many indi- 



160 ANTIDOTES AGAINST THE 

viduals, indeed, had been bitten during that period, but all of 
them, with those two exceptions^ had been cured, either by 
remedies in common use among the Hottentots, (as transmitted 
to them from their ancestors,) or hj the use of antidotes 
furnished by the missionaries. 

£au de luce is the most common and approved antidote 
employed by Europeans. The mode of using it is to give 
the patient five drops in a glass of water, and to repeat the 
dose every ten minutes till the force of the poison be counter- 
acted, — applying it, also, at the same time, externally to the 
wound. The readiest, and perhaps the best remedy, if instantly 
and boldly applied, and one in common use among the natives, 
is to suck the wound well with the mouth. In doing this, no 
danger need be apprehended by the operator, unless there 
should happen to be any sore or puncture about the lips or 
tongue which might afford the poison direct access to the 
blood ; for it is well known that the venom of the most deadly 
snakes may be swallowed with impunity. Before sucking the 
wound it should be well scarified with a lancet or pen-knife, and 
allowed to bleed freely. If sweet milk can be had, the patient 
is made to drink of it abundantly, and the wounded part is also 
immersed in it, or bathed with brandy or hartshorn. 

The following singular remedy is much used by the Hotten- 
tots, and by many of the colonists, who have borrowed it from 
them. When a person is bit by any of the more venomous 
snakes, a domestic fowl is instantly procured, and the fleshy 
part of the breast being cut open, it is pressed fresh and palpi- 
tating to the wound. The virus is, by this means, rapidly 
abstracted ; and if the poison be very deadly, the fowl speedily 
exhibits clearproof of its malignancy, — becomes drowsy, droops 
its head, and dies. It is then withdrawn, and a second is cut 
open and applied in the same manner ; — a third, if requisite; and 
so on, until it appears, from the decreased influence of the 
poison on the fowls, that its destructive virulence is eflectually 
subdued. The worst crisis is then considered to be past, and 
the patient in most cases recovers. 



POISON OF SKAKES. 161 

An instance of the successful use of the above remedy was 
mentioned to me by Mr. Wait, a Scotch fanner at Camtoos 
River, near Algoa Bay. His youngest child, a fine boy of 
about three years of age, while playing in the garden, had 
stumbled on a very large pu£f-adder, and was bit by it. The 
mother (to whom the terrified infant betook itself, lisping out 
that a < big worm ' had bit it) instantly cut open the breast of 
a fowl, as she had been previously instructed to do by the 
Hottentots, and applied it to the part. In a few minutes the 
animal sickened and died. A second was applied and died also* 
A third was so much affected by the venom as to appear giddy 
and stupid, but survived the operation. The child was then 
made to drink largely of sweet milk ; the limb was placed in a 
running stream, and afterwards smeared over with tar, which 
gradually removed the violent inflammation, and the livid hue 
which had begun to spread over it ; and in the course of a few 
days the parents enjoyed the happiness of seeing their child 
(rescued by this means alone from a frightful death) once 
more restored to perfect health. 

A large serpent resembling the boa-constrictor is found in 
the country north-east of Natal, and in the vicinity of the 
Orange River; and rumours prevail among the HottentiOts of 
its being also occasionally found within the colony. l£ it exist 
so far south, however, it must be extremely rare, as I never 
was able to discover a well authenticated instance of its being 
seen. 

A large amphibious lizard, called the legttany a species of 
guana, is found in the rivers. It has sometimes been mis- 
taken for the crocodile, but is perfectly harmless, anj'^MddiBists 
upon vegetables, earth-worms, and insects. It is fi^ three 
to six feet long. It lives partly on land, but always neat some 
deep pool of a river, to which it betakes itself with great 
celerity, if surprised. Its flesh and eggs are considered delicate 
food. An amusing incident occurred with one of these rep- 
tiles when our party first came up Glen-Lynden. Two of 
our Scotch servants being out with their guns, found a leguan 



162 LOCUSTS. 

asleep on the bank of the river. Supposing it to be a crocodile, 
they valorously determined to shoot ]t> but took aim over 
a ledge of rock, at a cautious distancey and with so much 
trepidation, that the supposed crocodile, more surprised than 
harmed, effected a rapid retreat to the water. On relating the 
adventure, the size and terrible appearance of the animal were 
ludicrously exaggerated, the creature being represented as at 
least ten or twelve feet long ; while the lads were ready to 
make bond fiAe affidavit that their bullets rebounded like 
peas from the impenetrable scales of this monstrous kayman. 

Among the numerous small lizards of the country is found 
the curious and delicate chameleon. One species of lizard 
called the geitjej of about the same size as the chameleon, but 
much more rare, is considered very venomous. I heard of 
several well authenticated instances of noxious and even iicktal 
effects from its bite, but never saw the reptile itself. 

Of the insect kingdom, the most remarkable g^nus is the 
locust (jgryUus devastator)^ From the ravages of this devourer, 
the Cape colonists have frequently suffered ; nor did the Glen- 
Lynden settlers escape. 

These destructive insects had made their appearance in this 
quarter of the colony during the year 1824, being the first time 
they had been seen since 1808. They continued to advance 
from the north in 1825 ; in 1826 the corn crops at Glen-Lynden 
were totally destroyed by them; and during 1827, 1828, and 
1829, they extended their ravages through the whole of the 
northern and eastern districts of the colony. In 1830, they 
again disappeared. Their inroads, according to the best accounts 
I could obtain, appear to be renewed periodically, about once 
in fifteen or twenty years, and generally continue for several 
years at a time. 

The locust of South Africa is not the same with the Asiatic, 
but a distinct species, to which Lichtenstein has g^ven the 
name of gfyllus devastator. The swarms which infest the 
colony appear to come originally always from the northward, 
and are probably bred in the vast deserts of the interior, north 



FLYIKO LOCUSTS. 163 

and south of the Gareep or Orange River. In returning to 
Glen-Lynden in 1825, we passed through a flying swarm, 
which had exactly the appearance^ as it approached, of a vast 
snow-cloud hanging on the slope of the mountain from which 
the snow was falling in very large flakes. When we got into 
the midst of them, the air all around and above was darkened as 
l^ a thick cloud ; and the rushing sound of the wings of the 
millions of these insects was as loud as the dash of a mill-wheel. 
The gpround as they passed became strewed with those that 
were wounded, or had wings broken in their flight by coming 
in contact with their neighbours. But those formed but a 
trival portion of the whole enormous mass. The column that 
we thus passed through was, as nearly as I could calculate, 
about half a mile in breadth, and from two to three miles in 
length. Much larger colxunns are frequently seen. The 
following details are chiefly extracted firom a paper transmitted 
to me the preceding year by Captain Stockenstrom, for our 
South African Journal. 

The flying locusts, though often seen in such numbers as 
to obscure the sky when they are passing, and to destroy luxu- 
riant flelds of com in a few hours, are less dreaded by the 
£irmers than the larvae, devoid of wings — vulgarly called by 
the colonists voetgangers (foot-goers). On the approach of 
the flying locusts, the husbandman, if the wind be favour- 
able, kindles fires round his fields, and raises a dense smoke, 
which will probably prevent them from alighting. But the 
younger, or jumping locusts, no such slight obstacle will 
check in their course ; and a powerful stream alone, on the side 
they approach, can save the crops of the agriculturists from 
their ravages. Stagnant pools they cross, by the leading 
multitudes being drowned, and forming a bridge for those 
following : even the Orange River, where it flows calmly, is 
crossed by their myriads in this manner. In the same manner 
fires are extinguished by the incalculable numbers which pre- 
cipitate themselves on the flames in succession, and which, by 
perishing, provide a passage for the rest. Their numbers are. 



164 LOCUSTS. 

indeed, so inconceiyably great, that the inhabitants regard th^r 
approach with the utmost dismay, as involving not merely the 
destruction of their crops and gardens, but often also the entire 
pasturage of the country ; in which case the &rmer has no 
resource but to hasten from the district where they have 
' devoured every green thing,' in order to search for precarious 
subsistence for his flocks in such parts of the wilderness as 
they may have missed in their migration Failing to find such 
privileged tracts, his flocks must perish. 

The locusts usually begin their march after sunrise, and 
encamp at sunset; and unhappy the husbandman on whose 
fields they quarter themselves. If their halting-place happen 
to be observed in the neighbourhood of a fiurm-house, the 
inhabitants frequently endeavour to destroy them by driving 
flocks of sheep and cattle to the spot before the sun rises, in 
order to trample them to death; but unless the number be 
comparatively inconsiderable, little benefit is derived from such 
efforts. 

The flights and swarms of locusts are usually followed by 
immense flocks of birds, which subsist entirely on those insects 
and their larvee, and which Captain Stockenstrom says some- 
what resemble the Cape mountain-swallow. I did not see any 
of those birds myself, but Mr. Barrow has described them as a 
species of thrush, about the size of the common skylark. This 
bird is called by the colonists spring -haan-vogel (locust-bird) ; 
it is never seen in the colony except in pursuit of the locust*^ 
swarms, which it follows in countless flocks, and builds its nest 
and rears its young in the midst of its prey. 

Not only the locust-bird,*' says Captain Stockenstrom, 

but every animal, domestic and wild, contributes to the 
destruction of the locust- swarms ; fowls, sheep, horses^ dogs, 
antelopes, and almost every living thing, may be seen devour- 
ing them with equal greediness ; whilst the half-starved Bush- 
men, and even some of the Colonial Hottentots, consider them 
a great luxury, consuming great quantities fresh, and drying 
abundance for future emergencies. Great havoc is also corn- 



et 



EXUBERANCE OF ANIMAL LIFE. 165 

mitted among' the locusts by their own kindred ; for as soon as 
any one of thein gets hurt, or meets with an accident which 
impedes his progress, his fellow-travellers nearest to him imme* 
diately turn upon him and devour him with great voracity." 

The other genera of insects, though almost infinite in 
variety, and some of them, such as ants, flies, and beetles, 
inconceivably numerous, are not nearly so troublesome as in 
many other climates. The termes of South Africa is not the 
destructive species ; and mosquitoes are scarcely known, except 
in a few damp situations near the coast. Tarantulas and 
scorpions are found ; but accidents occurring from their bite 
are rare, and, so far as I could learn, never fatal. I was myself 
once bit by a centipede, and was at first somewhat alarmed by 
the rapid and painful inflammation arising from the puncture : 
but it was cured in a few hours by the application of the 
leaves of a species of wormwood (artemida afro), prescribed 
by an old Hottentot woman. 

The exuberance of animal life is certainly one of the most 
remarkable and impressive features of Southern Afirica. The 
abundance and variety of the larger game in the upland 
pastures of the wilderness has been repeatedly adverted to. 
The forests and wooded glens are all alive with their feathered 
habitants, many of them adorned with the most splendid 
plumage. The mountains and the rocks have their appropriate 
occupants. The sea-coast and many of the rivers swarm with 
fish and water fowl ; and the inland streams, less fruitful in the 
finny tribes, are full of crabs and tortoises, and vocal in spring 
with the shrill chirping of millions of frogs. The arid deserts, 
uninhabitable by man, furnish food and refuge to the ostrich 
and the serpent-eater ; and in the tracks of death-like desola- 
tion, where even those solitary birds cannot find a fountain, 
life is still found pouring forth from the inexhaustible womb 
of the parched yet pregnant earth : thousands of lizards and 
land-tortoises are seen crawling about, or basking on the 
rocks and stones, and myriads of myriads of ants are building 
their clay pyramids, or busily travelling to and fro, in long 
black trains, across the sultry ground. 



166 EXUBERANCE OF ANIMAL LIFE. 

But to describe this exubeiance, this endless teeming forth 
of animal existence, would require language too glowing to 
suit the prosaic style of these familiar sketches. It would, to 
describe it adequately, require an imagination rich as that of 
my honoured and highly gifted firiend Mr. Coleridge, when he 
poured forth his magnificent * Hymn to the Earth : ' — 

** Earth ! thou Mother of numberless Children, the Nurse and the Mother ; 

Sister thou of the Stars, and beloyed by the Sun, the rejoicer ! 

« • • • • * 

Mightier far was the joy of thy sudden resilience : and forthwith 
Myriad myriads of lives teemed forth from the migbty embracement 
Thousand-fold tribes of dwellers, impelled by thousand-fold instincts, 
Filled, as a dream, the wide waters : the rivers sang on their channels : 
Laughed on their shores the hoarse seas : the yearning ocean swelled upward : 
Young life lowed through the meadows, the woods, and the echoing mountains, 
Wandered bleating in valleys, and warbled in blossoming branches !** 



167 



CHAPTER IX. 

State of Glen-Ijynden Settlement in July ^ 1822 — Road'-making 
— MiUtary Guard withdrawn — Arrival of Relatives from 
Scotlandr-~'Departure (f the Author for Cape Town; his 
Views there — GroAiff-Reinit — The Sneeuwherg — House* 
hold of an affluent Grazier — Hospitality of the Inhabitants 
— The Chreat Karroo — Habits of the Ostrich — Ga^l at 
JBeauforty and its Inmates — Journey along the Ghamka 
River-^ Transition from Sterility to exuberant Vegetation 
—^Hex River-^Arrival at Cape Town. 

The state of our little settlement at the close of its second 
year, in July, 1822, was on the whole prosperous. The first 
difficulties had been surmounted ; the severest privations were 
past. A crop, though a somewhat scanty one, of wheat and 
barley, had been reaped. The gardens were well stocked 
with vegetables. The flocks and herds were considerable in 
number, and gradually increasing. The necessaries of life 
were secured; comforts and conveniences were slowly accu- 
mulating. The several families had all obtained Hottentot 
servants ; and, being now familiarised to the country and its 
various inhabitants, had begun to feel ^uite at home on their 
respective farms. 

Among other improvements, the frightful road down the 
glen had been so fitr repaired and ameliorated, that wagons 
could now travel on it, if not with ease, at least without immi* 
nent danger. This had been accomplished by the vigorous 
voluntary labours of the party, assisted by our Mulatto 
tenants; the Colonial Government having, at my request, 
relieved for one year our coloured allies from all other public 
services, in consideration of their aid in this enterprise. It 
may be worth while to mention that, in accomplishing this 
arduous work, we overcame oue of the chief difficulties— the 



168 ARRIVAL OF RELATIVES FROM SCOTLAND. 

removal of the eoormons blocks of stone which frequently 
obstructed the only practicable line of road — not by the aid of 
blowing-irons, but by the joint application of fire and water. 
This process, which we learnt from the Hottentots, consisted 
simply in kindling a large fire of wood upon and around the 
mass of rock we wished to get rid of, and, when it was well 
heated, to sweep off the fire, and dash suddenly upon it several 
bucketfuls of cold water, — ^which, by causing an instantaneous 
change of temperature in the mass, generally split it, if it lay in 
an isolated position, into a number of manageable frtigments *, 

Our guard of six Hottentot soldiers was withdrawn by the 
Colonial Government in January ; but as we were now well 
strengthened by our Mulatto tenantry, we could dispense with 
military support. Hitherto we had neither suffered actual 
damage, nor been disturbed by any serious alarm from our 
wild neighbours to the eastward, although several of the 
Boors on the Tarka and Great Fish River had been recently 
subjected to their depredations. Our only intercourse with 
the Caffer tribes had consisted in one or two amicaUe visits 
which a few of them, chiefly females, had paid us in search of 
employment, and whom, in obedience to the colonial regula- 
tions at that time, we had sent back to their own country 
under an escort. 

In July, 1822, my eldest brother arrived with his &mily 
and some other relatives from Scotland ; and, having placed in 
his possession the farm of Eildon, upon which I had resided 
for the last nine months, I prepared myself to proceed to Cape 
Town, in order to occupy a situation to which I had been 
appointed by the Colonial Government. 

* I afterwards fouud that this mode of splitting rocks had been practised mth 
great success by Captain Stockenstrom, at Graaff-Reinet, in constmcting aa 
aqueduct along the side of a hill for the use of that village. The same procesa 
is also well known in Hayti, and is employed on a lai^ scale there by the 
Negro engineers, as I am informed by my intelligent friend, Mr. Richard Hilli 
of Jamaica, who, on recently travelling through that interesting island, found 
magnificent public roads carried through some of the most difficult passes of the 
mountains by this simple operation. It seems probable that it was solely by 
this means that Hannibal facilitated the famous passage of his army pver the 
Alps ; and that the story of his pouring vinegar on the rocks after he had 
heated them with fire, is a fabulous addition to the real &ot8. 



THE author's object. 169 

I have mentioned in the commencement of this narrative the 
nature of my aims and expectations in emigrating to the Cape. 
One of my chief objects, the establishment of my father's 
&mily in rural independence, had been fully accomplished. 
Towards the rest of the party, also, I had now fulfilled the 
duties which I undertook when I became their leader and 
representative. All that I could do to promote their pros- 
perity had been done, so far at least as depended upon my resi- 
dence on the location. A longer residence there could do 
little to benefit my own family. Land, without adequate 
capital to occupy it, was scarcely of any value ; and my pecu- 
niary means were too slender either to purchase sufficient stock 
or procure effective labour. I had, therefore, from the com- 
mencement of our enterprise, regarded farming, under my 
peculiar circumstances, as a resource only to be resorted to in 
the event of my failing to obtain some suitable employment 
under Government. 

The situation to which I had been appointed was that of 
librarian of the Government Library at Cape Town, an excel- 
lent institution, established principally by the exertions of 
Colonel Bird, the Secretary to Government. This charge had 
been offered me by the governor, Lord Charles Somerset, some 
time after his return to the colony in the close of 1821, in con- 
sequence of the interest exerted in my behalf in Downing- 
street, by Sir Walter Scott, Sir John Macpherson, and other 
influential friends. As regards emolument, indeed, the appoint- 
ment was but a humble one ; the salary being only 1000 rix 
dollars — or about £75 sterling. But the duties were not very 
onerous, and were peculiarly adapted to my tastes and habits. 
I was not unaware of the inadequacy of the income for the 
support of a family in so expensive a place as Cape Town ; but 
1 was encouraged to hope that, by means of the press, 1 might 
be enabled to realise a competent income for my family, and at 
the same time to benefit my fellow-colonists by the diffusion 
of useful information. I knew that Colonel Bird, whose influ<> 

I 



170 COMMENCE MY JOURNEY TO CAPE TOWN. 

ence had once been great, was well disposed to promote my 
views on these points ; but I was not then aware how extremely 
repugnant were the Governor's own sentiments to any liberal 
use of the press, and, consequently, how utterly incompatible 
were the views I entertained with those of his administration. 
But of this topic hereafter : I return to my journal. 

With the view of enlarging my acquaintance with the interior 
of the colony, I resolved to travel down to Cape Town by land ; 
the distance being by the nearest route — that through Graaff- 
Reinet and the Great-Karroo — ^nearly 700 miles. After a 
short stay at Somerset Farm (where one of my brothers now 
filled the situation of agricultural superintendent under our 
friend Mr. Hart), I commenced my journey on the 17th of 
August, in an ox-wagon, accompanied by my wife and her 
sister. As we had an extensive desert to pass through, we 
took care to carry with us an adequate supply of provisions. 

We reached Graaf-Reinet in two days and a half. The dis- 
tance from Somerset is estimated to be about seventy miles; 
but the roads being good and our oxen fresh, we proceeded at 
the most rapid rate of ox-wagon travelling, which is about 
thirty miles a day. The intervening country, which has been 
long occupied by Dutch- African colonists, has been repeatedly 
described by travellers under the names of Agter-Bruintjes- 
Hoogte and Camdeboo. 

Graaf-Reinet is a handsome country town, situated at the 
southern base of the Sneeuw Bergen, or Snowy Mountains, and 
contains about two thousand inhabitants. Being well watered 
by a canal from the Sunday River, and the streets planted with 
lemon and orange trees, it looks like a green oasis in the midst 
of a brown and arid desert. Its prosperity and beauty are 
owing, in an eminent degree, to the exertions of the Stocken- 
stromS; father and son, who were for upwards of twenty years 
resident here as chief magistrates of the district. We stopped 
here three days, during which period I obtained much inform- 
ation respecting the northern districts of the colony and the 
wild tribes on its borders, firom the landdrost, Capt. Stocken- 



ASCENT OF THE SNEEUWBERG. 171 

8trom, the district clergyman, Mr. Fanre, and other intelligent 
local functionaries. 

We left Graaff-Reinet on the 2drd, in company with Jacob 
Mare, a respectable burgher of that place, who, with his wife 
and two daughters, was also bound for Cape Town with wagons. 
Having placed myself under the experienced guidance of old 
Jacob, we ascended the Sneeuwberg by a long and steep accli- 
vity, proposing to travel for a considerable way along the 
summit of those mountains, on account of the excessive 
drought, and consequent want of water and pasturage, which 
prevailed in the Karroo plains below. The temperature of the 
Sneeuwberg was at this season very cold, and all the higher 
points were covered with snow. The loftiest peak, called Com- 
pass-Berg, is considered, according to the most accurate esti- 
mate yet made, to be 6,500 feet above the level of the sea. 
The aspect of this elevated region was bleak, rugged, and bare 
of wood ; but well watered, and, for Africa, rich in pasturage. 
It consists of a sort of plateau or table-land, rising abruptl} from 
the plains of Camdeboo and the Karroo in immense buttresses 
of naked rock ; the ledges or strata of which, as Mr. Barrow 
has accurately remarked, are so perfectly horizontal, and so 
regularly squared at the angles, that but for their vast height 
and magnitude they might be taken for gigantic lines of 
masonry. The uppermost stratum consists of sandstone, 
intermingled, at intervals, with quartz : the bases are schistus. 
There is no appearance of granite. The soil on the summit is 
a stiff clay, thickly strewed with loose stones, but bearing, where 
it can be irrigated, good crops of wheat and barley. There is 
no timber, and scarcely a thicket of brushwood throughout the 
whole of the Sneeuwberg ; so that the inhabitants are mostly 
oblig^ to use, for fuel, either a very small shrub (stoebe rhino- 
cerotit)^ or the dung of their cattle dried like turf, and to bring 
timber for building either from the coast or firom the forests of 
Glen-Lynden and the Kaha. 

The following day we reached the place of Schalk Burger, an 
affluent grazier, where we spent the night. The house, which 

i2 



172 DUTCH-AFRICAN FARM-ROUSE. 

was large, substantial, and well fiumishedy we fonnd full of 
guests, there being not fewer than eight-and-twenty besides 
ourselves, all respectable-looking African fiurmers or travellers, 
mostly with their wives and children. How they were all 
accommodated I could not easily guess ; but when I made some 
apology for increasing the number of their visiters, in conse- 
quence of the piercing cold wind which prevented our sleeping 
in our wagons, the bustling hostess assured me, with a smile, that 
they had abundance of accommodation, and bedding for many 
more guests. So &r as bedding went, this was certainly the 
case ; for on retiring to rest I was conducted to a slaap^kamer^ 
containing three good curtained bedsteads, furnished with two, 
three, or four feather-beds each ; but in one of these were 
already deposited my wife and her sister. Such, indeed, was 
not unusually the arrangement made for us when we slept (as 
we sometimes found it necessary to do) in the houses of the 
Dutch- African colonists during our journey. Even in the best 
houses in the remote districts, the sleeping apartments are few, 
and usually contain two or three beds each. In a country 
where there are no inns, and where universal hospitality pre- 
vails, the crowding of one or more entire iamilies into the same 
bed-room cannot, perhaps, always be avoided, and, from having 
become customary, appears not even to be regarded as incon- 
venient. It is a custom which indicates both lack of refine- 
ment and great simplicity of manners. A century ago, a state 
of things not very widely dissimilar prevailed in the most 
respectable farm-houses of Scotland, and still prevails in the 
cottages of the peasantry. 

We spent the following forenoon with this family, which fur- 
nished a pleasing specimen of the Sneeuwberg farmers, a class 
of men of whom Mr. Barrow thirty years ago gave so favour- 
able a report. After breakfast, some more company arrived, 
whom I found to be neighbours and relatives come to spend the 
Sunday with our patriarchal host. We were soon after invited 
to attend their religious service in the hall, round which the 
whole company were silently seated ; and I was glad to see what 



SPECIMEN OF THE SNEEUWBERO FARMERS. 173 

I had never witnessed on the frontier, that the slaves and Hot- 
tentots belonging to the household were also freely admitted. 
After singing some hymns, and reading some portions of scrip- 
ture, our landlord addressed the company in an exhortation, 
apparently extempore, of about half an hour in length. It 
appeared to me very sensible and appropriate, and was listened 
to with every appearance of devout attention. 

After this becoming service, all the company sat down to a 
plentiful and cheerful repast, consisting chiefly of stewed meats, 
according to the Dutch fashion, but very well cooked, and 
varied with baked fruits, pastry, pickles, and salads in abun- 
dance. The spoons and some of the other articles were of silver ; 
the capacious tureens of well burnished pewter ; the plates of 
China and English delf, with napkins, 6cc. There was country 
wine ; but glasses were only placed for the men, who drank of 
it very moderately ; the women not at all. 

I left them in the afternoon ; much pleased with the good 
humour and good sense that seemed to prevail among these rustic 
inhabitants of the mountains. There was nothing very Arca- 
dian certainly about them ; but their appearance was decent 
and comfortable, and their manners frank, hospitable, and 
courteous. Notwithstanding the heavy damage occasioned 
throughout the district by mildew in the crops, and recent 
violent rains, plenty was apparent every where. I afterwards 
learned, indeed, that our host was one of the wealthiest, and, 
at the same time, one of the worthiest men and best masters 
in the Sneeuwberg. His < substance ' might almost have rivalled 
that of Job and Jacob in their most prosperous days. He pos- 
sessed eleven plaatzeriy or farm- properties, pastured by 13,000 
sheep, and from 2000 to 3000 cattle, besides horses, corn, &c. 
He had only one son; and notwithstanding his unbounded 
hospitality, had saved much money ; and this, I was told, he 
generally lent out to his poorer neighbours without interest ; it 
being a maxim with this liberal man, that it is more profitable 
to assist one's friends than to hoard money by usury." 

As an evidence of the simplicity of manners existing among 



174 THE GREAT KARROO. 

this class of people, I may mention that notwithstanding the 
wealth of the femily and their numerous coloured servants, 
Schalk Burger's only son drove himself our wagon with a team 
of oxen, with which his iieither had furnished me for the next 
stage, in order to keep my bullocks fresh for the ardnoos 
journey before us. 

The hospitality for which the Dutch-Afirican colonists have 
always been famed, I found still prevailing unimpaired in the 
Sneeuwberg. Not only this family, to whom it would have 
been an insult to have offered remuneration of any sort, but 
every other I visited in that quarter, positively refused any 
compensation for lodging or provisions ; while many of them 
made us presents of loaves of fine bread, dried fruits, comfits, 
&c., although we were perfect strangers to them, and all that 
they could know of us was such slight information as might be 
furnished by our fellow-travellers, the Mares. 

From erroneous information obtained at Schalk Van Heer- 
den's, the next place we stopped at, we were induced to descend 
from the Sneeuwberg by a most fnghtful-looking path, in the 
expectation of being enabled to cross the Great Karroo by the 
banks of the Kareega river ; but after going nearly two days* 
journey out of our way, we found ourselves constrained to relin- 
quish the attempt, on account of the total want of water in the 
channel of this periodical river. We had no alternative, there- 
fore, but to shape our course along the skirts of the deserts, 
towards the source of the Ghamka, where the drostdy, or dis- 
trict village of Beaufort, had been recently erected. 

The Great Karroo is an arid desert, about three hundred 
miles in length, by from seventy to eighty in breadth; 
bounded by the Sneeuwberg and Nieuwveld ridges of mountains 
on the north, and by the Zwartberg, or Black Mountain ridge, 
on the south. It is not a sandy plain, and bears no resem- 
blance to the Sahara, or the Arabian deserts. It consists of a 
sort of table-land, or elevated basin, thinly covered with an 
argillaceous soil, largely impregnated with iron, upon a sub- 
stratum of rock or gravel. Some large portions of it are 



ITS VEGETATION. 175 

perfectly lerel, hnt in others the surface is diversified by slaty 
hills and eminences, some of which would appear considerable, 
save for the lofty mountains which bound the Karroo on all 
sides, except towards the east, where it extends into Cam- 
deboo. Its medium height above the level of the sea is 
estimated at about three thousand feet. It is crossed by many 
beds of rivers, or rather torrents, most of which run from north 
to south, and find an exit for their waters to the coast through 
a few breaks in the southern chains of mountains. These 
rivers, however, are for the greater part of the year either 
entirely dried up, or furnish only a few scanty pools, barely 
sufficient for the wild animals — zebras, quaggas, ostriches, &c,, 
-—which frequent this inhospitable region. Not unfrequently 
even those brackish pools and fountains also fail, as was the 
case at the time of our journey ; and then the Karroo becomes 
almost impassable by man, and a large portion of it uninhabit- 
able even by the wild beasts. 

In such a region, where rain is rare, and dews almost 
unknown, the vegetation must of necessity be at all times 
extremely scanty ; and in summer, when the sun has dried the 
soil to the hardness of brick, it ceases almost entirely. Except 
along the courses of the temporary rivers, which for the most 
part are marked by a fringe of mimosas, not a tree, nor a bush, 
nor a blade of grass, decks the wide expanse of the waste. 
Low stunted shrubs, resembling heath ; numerous species of 
fig-marigolds and ice-plants (7neserribryanthemufn)j ghanna" 
hosch {8alsola)y gorier iuy asters, &c. ; some sorts of prickly 
euphorbia, and other succulent plants and bulbs, whose roots 
nature has fortified with a tenfold net of fibres under the upper 
rind, to protect them during the long droughts, are alone able 
to subsist in the arid Karroo. During the dry season even 
these appear to be for the most part parched into a brown 
stubble, thinly scattered over the indurated or slaty soil ; but 
in the early spring, when the ground becomes moistened with 
the fall of rain, these plants rush into vegetation with a 
rapidity that looks like enchantment, and in a few days millions 



176 ARRIVAL AT THE ZOUT RIVIER. 

of flowers of the most brilliant hues enamel the earth. It is 
chiefly at this season, when the whole dreary waste may be 
said to be transformed into a vast flower garden, that the 
colonists of the Sneeuwberg, the Nieuwyeld, the Bokkeveld, and 
the Roggeveld, whose alpine &rms are then chilled with keen 
frosts and the piercing mountain winds, descend into the 
Karroo to pasture their herds and flocks on the short-lived 
vegetation. 

At the time of our journey no rain had fisdlen on the Karroo 
for upwards of twelve months, so that I saw it under its most 
desolate aspect. Not a vestige of green pasturage was to be 
descried over the sur&ce of the immense monotonous land- 
scape ; and the low heath-like shrubbery, apparently as sapless 
as a worn-out broom, was the only thing our cattle had to 
browze on. No wild game was to be seen : all had fled appa- 
rently to some more hospitable region. Not even a wandering 
ostrich or bird of prey appeared for some time to break the 
death-like stillness of the waste. 

On the 28th we commenced our journey along the northern 
skirts of the wilderness. After travelling fourteen hours 
without water, we reached a brackish fountain about four in the 
following morning, onr poor oxen almost quite exhausted with 
a hard journey of nearly forty miles. The road, however, was 
excellent, being hard and smooth as a gravel walk. In the 
vicinity of the fountain we saw a few ostriches. The following 
night we halted at a boor*s place, on the Zout Rivier (Salt 
River), a brook appropriately named, for its waters were so 
brackish as to be scarcely drinkable, though the residents here 
had no other. The margins of the brook were literally white 
with nitrous efflorescence, as if covered with hoar-frost ; and 
the soil of the fields adjacent so impregnated with saltpetre as 
to be entirely barren, and incapable of cultivation. The boor, 
Du Ploit, was a frank talkative fellow, and a great Nimrod in 
his way. He entertained us all the morning with anecdotes 
of his only neighbours, the lions, leopards, hyaenas, koodoos, 
gemsboks, ostriches, and other wild animals of the wilderness. 



THe OSTRICH. 177 

The boor, like others on the skirts of the northern deserts 
of the Cape, made the pursuit of the ostrich, for the sake of 
its plumage, one of his chief occupations, thus combining 
profit with pastime. He showed us the skins of five or six 
he had lately shot, informing me that an ostrich's skin, after 
the finest plumes (about forty-five in number) have been 
taken from it, brings the huntsman from ten to seventeen rix- 
dollars, or from 15«. to 25s- sterling. The fine feathers bring 
in Cape Town from 6d, to 1^. each. Du Ploit said that it was 
exceedingly difiQcult to get within musket-shot of these birds, 
owing to their constant vigilance, and the great distance to 
which they can see. The fleetest horse, too, will not over- 
take them, unless stratagem be adopted to tire them out ; but 
by several huntsmen taking different sides of a large plain, 
and pursuing them backward and forward till their strength is 
exhausted, they may be at length run down. If followed up 
too eagerly this chace is not destitute of danger, for the hunts- 
man has sometimes had his thigh bone broken by a single 
stroke from the wing or foot of a wounded ostrich. 

Du Ploit*s account of the habits of this bird confirmed, in 
all material points, the statement given by Professor Lichten- 
stein in his African Travels. He said that at the season of 
breeding the male generally associates to himself from two to 
six females. The hens lay all their eggs together in the same 
nest, each contributing from twelve to sixteen ; and in incu- 
bation the birds take their turns in the nest, the male usually 
taking the charge at night, when his superior strength is most 
requisite to protect the eggs or the newly fledged young from 
jackalls, tiger-cats, and other enemies, which are said to be not 
unfirequently found lying dead around the spot, slain by a 
stroke from the powerful foot of this gigantic bird. The nest 
consists merely of a shallow cavity scooped in the ground, 
having the earth raised round the edges to keep the eggs in 
their proper position. The eggs are placed upon their points, 
so that the greatest possible number may be covered by the 
body of the bird. About thirty eggs at the most are hatched, 

I 3 



178 THB OSTRICH. 

though double that number are sometimes found in and around 
a nest. The females continue to lay during incpbation ; but 
the supernumerary eggs are placed outside the nest, being 
reserved for the nourishment of the young birds when they 
first issue from the shell, and are too tender to digest the hard 
and acrid food on which the old ones subsist. The period of 
incubation is from thirty-six to forty days. In the middle of 
the day the nest is occasionally abandoned by all the birds, the 
heat of the sun being then sufficient to keep the eggs at the 
proper temperature. 

An ostrich egg is considered as equal in its contents to 
twenty-four of the domestic hen. When taken fresh from the 
nest, they are very palatable, and are wholesome, though some- 
what heavy food. The best mode of cooking them that I have 
seen is that practised by the Hottentots, who place one end of 
the egg in the hot ashes, and, making a small orifice at the 
other, keep stirring the contents with a stick till they are 
sufficently roasted ; and thus, with a seasoning of salt and 
pepper, you have a very nice omelet. 

The ostrich of South Africa is a wary animal, and displays 
little of that excessive stupidity ascribed to it by some 
naturalists. On the borders of the colony, at least, where 
it is eagerly pursued for the sake of its valuable plumage, 
this bird displays no want of sagacity in providing for its own 
safety or the security of its offspring. It adopts every possible 
precaution to conceal the place of its nest ; and abandons it, 
after destroying the eggs, if the nest has been disturbed, or the 
footsteps of man are discovered near it. 

The food of the ostrich consists of the tops of various 
shrubby plants which abound in the desert. This bird is so 
easily satisfied in regard to water that he is constantly to be 
found in the most parched and desolate tracts, which even the 
antelopes and beast of prey have deserted. His cry at a dist- 
ance is said so much to resemble that of a lion that even the 
Hottentots are sometimes deceived by it. When not hatching, 
they are frequently seen in the troops of thirty or forty 



DESCRIPTION OF A GAOL. 179 

together, or amicably associated with herds of zebras or quag- 
gas, their fellow tenants of the wilderness. 

On the 30th, we saw several large troops of ostriches ; and 
in the yicinity of a fountain where we halted, our Hottentot 
drivers, ^hile tending the oxen, came upon two ostrich-nests, 
one of which contained twenty-four fine fresh eggs ; in the 
other the eggs had all been broken, apparently by the birds 
themselves, as is said to be their practice on finding their nests 
discovered. 

We stopped three days at Beaufort, where we were most 
hospitably entertained by our Scottish countryman Mr. Baird. 
In the place itself, — a village of about twenty houses^ on the 
northern verge of the Karroo, and supplied with water by two 
permanent fountains, — ^there was little worthy of remark ; but 
the drostdy tronk, or gaol, which I visited more than once, in 
company with Mr. Taylor, the clergyman of the district, was 
an interesting though a deplorable scene, and requires a more 
particular notice. 

This tronk consisted of a single apartment, of about twenty 
feet long by twelve or fourteen broad ; and for the purposes of 
light and ventilation, had only one small grated opening, in 
the shape of a loop-hole, at a considerable height in the wall. 
Into this apartment were crowded about thirty human beings, 
of both sexes, of all ages, and of almost every hue, — except 
white. The whites, or Christen menschenf as they call them- 
selves, are seldom imprisoned, except for some very flagrant 
outrage — ^and then in some place apart from the coloured 
prisoners ; lest the < Christian ' thief or murderer should be 
dishonoured by being forced to associate with his brother men 
of swarthy hue, even though many of the latter, as in the 
present case, should be guiltless of any crime. 

The condition of this gaol was dreadful. On the door being 
opened, the clergyman requested me to wait a few minutes 
until a freer ventilation had somewhat purified the noisome 
atmosphere within — for the effluvia, on the first opening of 
the door, were too horrible to be encountered. This I can well 



180 NOTICES OF ITS INMATES. 

believe; for when, after this precaution, we did enter, the 
odour was still more than I could well endure ; and it was only 
by coming frequently to the open door to inhale a renovating 
draught of wholesome air, that I could accomplish such an 
examination of this dismal den as the aspect and condition of 
its inmates urgently claimed from humanity. Whether there 
was at this time an unusual number of prisoners, — or with 
whom lay the fault of not more effectually providing for their 
accommodation and cleanliness, I cannot say ; but if it was 
owing to the negligence of the local functionaries, it was the 
duty of the Circuit Court to call them to account for it, and 
to see that adequate funds were appropriated to erect a decent 
gaol for the district. But this was not a singular case; at 
that time the gaols for the coloured classes throughout the 
Colony, with one or two exceptions, were a disgrace to 
humanity. How far they have been improved since, I cannot 
pretend to say. 

The prisoners being desired to range themselves around the 
walls, exhibited a strange array of wild and swarthy visages, 
squalid with neglect and misery, and sickly with confinement. 
There were runaway slaves, standing with shackled limbs and 
lowering looks, sullenly awaiting their awarded punishment, 
and the arrival of their owners to drag them back to the house 
of bondage. There were Hottentots, clothed in a costume 
half native, half European — the sheep-skin caross of their 
forefathers, and the leathern trowsers of the boor. Some of 
these were complainants at the drostdy against the fraud or 
oppression of the colonists to whom (agreeably to colonial 
law) they were bound in servitude ; and they were immured 
(agreeably to colonial practice) in this vile tronk, until their 
masters found it convenient to answer their accusations, and 
probably to get them well flogged for daring to complain; 
such, at leasts was then the usual result. Others were merely 
Hottentots out of service, who had been apprehended by the 
field-cornets, and sent here until some white man should apply 
to have them given out to him on contract. 



NOTICES OF ITS INMATS8. 181 

There were wild Bushmen, too — with aspect, dress, and 
demeanour yet more barbarous and bizarre than the rudest of 
the colonial Hottentots. The whole raiment of the females, 
besides the caross, or sheep-skin mantle, consisted of a piece of 
leather cut into narrow thongs, and bound like an apron or 
small petticoat round the loins. The dress of the males was 
still more scanty. Their woolly hair, growing in separate 
tufts, fell naturally into spiral curls, and hung, matted with 
grease and iron ore, dangling like a bunch of tobacco-twist, 
over their narrow, black, and piercing eyes ; while their cheeks 
(at least those of the younger females) were ornamented with 
alternate streaks of red and white ochre. The offence for 
which they were in general confined was absconding from the 
service of the &rmers, after having, under the pressure of 
famine, sold themselves and their children to thraldom for a 
mess of pottage. Some, however, of these Bushmen, as well 
as of the slaves and Hottentot prisoners, were accused of more 
heinous crimes, and were awaiting the arrival of the annual 
Circuit Court to stand their trial. But all castes and grades, 
the innocent and the guilty, and the injured complainant 
equally with the hardened malefactor, were crowded together 
without distinction into this narrow and noisome dungeon. 

There was yet another group, more interesting, perhaps, 
than any of the others. It was a family of Caffers, consisting 
of two men, a woman, and child, and a youth of about sixteen. 
The men were seated, naked, on the clay floor, heavily ironed, 
and having their ankles fixed to a huge iron ring, which con- 
fined them like stocks in a recumbent posture. One of them 
displayed a frame of herculean size and strength ; but his 
countenance, though free from ferocity, was unanimated by 
intelligence. The calm and thoughtful features of his comrade, 
a man of middle age, expressed nothing of mere animal or 
savage passion, but were marked by a certain air of mental 
dignity and reflection. The female was said to be the wife of 
the latter ; and she had an infant encircled in the warm folds 
of her mantle. Her dress consisted of the ordinary caross of 



182 NOTICES OF ITS INMATES. 

OX or antelope hide, dressed with the hair upon it, together with 
a short petticoat of similar materials, and a kerchief of finer 
leather (from the skin, I helieve, of the weasel or wild- cat) 
drawn, like a veil, oyer the hosom — indicating, altogether, feeU 
ings of womanly modesty and decorum, pleasing to meet with 
amidst so much wretchedness and harbarism, and forming a 
favourable contrast to the disgusting nudity of some of the 
other females around her. Her deportment was quiet and 
subdued ; and her features, if not handsome to European eyes, 
were yet expressive of gentleness and simplicity of character. 
But the Ca£fer youth who stood beside this female, and who 
looked like her younger brother, was truly a model of juvenile 
beauty. His figure, which was almost entirely naked, displayed 
graceful ease and great symmetry of proportion. His high 
broad forehead and handsome nose and mouth approached the 
European standard ; and the mild, yet manly expression of his 
full black eyes and ingenuous open brow, bespoke confidence 
and good will at the first sight. 

These CafFers were waiting the arrival of the Circuit Court 
to stand their trial on a charge of murder. In endeavouring to 
escape to their own country from the district of Swellendam, 
they had been driven by hunger to steal a sheep. A boor's 
amazonian wife pursued them, and ordered her son, a boy of 
twelve or fourteen years of age, to fire on them. The boy 
fired, and shot one of the Cafiers whose comrades then turned 
in fury and slew the woman. This act roused the colonists on 
every side to rise in pursuit of them, and the unhappy fugi- 
tives were soon hunted down and delivered up to justice. They 
had been confined in the Beaufort gaol some months before 
my arrival, and were then awaiting their trial on the arrival of 
the Court of Circuit, which was expected in a few days. Owing 
to the want of evidence, however, or some similar cause, their 
case was not decided by the judges that season ; and twelve 
months afterwards I heard that they were still lying immured 
in the horrid gaol where I saw them. What was their ultimate 
fate I was never able to ascertain. 



DESOLATE ASPECT OF THE DESERT. 183 

On the third of September we left Beaufort, and proceeded 
to cross the Karroo by the course of the Ghamka or Lion*s 
River. This, like the other rivers of the desert, is a mere 
temporary torrent, furiously flooded after the violent deluges 
of rain, which occur in this part of the colony once, perhaps, 
in two or three years. At other times, its channel is almost 
entirely dry — only retaining here and there scanty pools, 
replenished occasionally by thunder showers in summer. 

The first day after leaving Beaufort, the aspect of the desert, 
and the manifestations of its drought and sterility were dismal 
enough. In the course of twenty miles I counted the skeletons 
(or rather such remnants as the hyaenas had left) of thirty-two 
oxen, which had recently perished on this inhospitable route. 
Along the course of the Ghamka there was, however, a narrow 
ftinge of mimosa trees, with occasional tracts of alluvial soil 
thickly covered with ghanna, a species of salsola, the ashes of 
which form a pure white caustic alkali, generally used by the 
colonists for making soap. This, and other shrubby plants, 
bruised by our wagon wheels as we passed along, emitted a 
pungent aromatic odour. Late at night we halted at a spot 
where the oxen found water in some brackish pits dug in the 
channel of the Ghamka, but there was nothing for them to 
browse but the dry and acrid shrubbery. 

For four successive days we continued our journey through 
this desolate region, without seeing a human dwelling, and 
scarcely a living creature, with the exception of some flocks 
of ostriches, a couple of koodoo antelopes, and one or two 
solitary jackals and hyaenas. We generally travelled till about 
midnight, and rested till past noon the following day, in order 
to allow our oxen light and leisure to pick up such scanty fare 
as the wilderness afforded — and that was indeed wretched 
enough. Travelling at night through the Karroo is sometimes 
hazardous, from the oxen being frightened by lions, and running 
off and overturning the wagons ; but the severe drought which 
had driven the quaggas and antelopes from this quarter of the 
wilderness, had also freed us from this danger — for the beasts 



184 PtlOCEED WITH MUCH DIPFICULT^. 

of prey never fiul to follow the wild game in their migrations. 
Sometimes we could find no water, even by digging in the bed 
of the river ; and what we found at other times was so brackish 
and thick with mud and filth as to be almost unfit for use« 
The frequent lowing of our oxen for food and water was 
extremely dismal and a£fecting ; and we were fain to pacify the 
poor animals as well as we could by cutting down the mimosa 
trees to enable them to snatch some scanty refireshment, by 
browsing on the meagre foliage and on the parasitical plants 
which grew upon the branches. Their strength and spirit, 
already impaired for want of sufficient nourishment before we 
reached Beaufort, began rapidly to decline ; and many of them 
had become very lame, owing to the sharp flinty roads wearing 
their hoofs to the quick. A team of ten fine young oxen that 
I had brought fresh and fiit from Somerset, were by this time 
entirely disabled ; and I began to dread that we should actuaUy 
be detained in ihe midst of this dismal desert. With the 
greatest exertions we were not able to travel more than about 
fifteen miles a-day. With fresh oxen and good pasturage we 
should have proceeded at double that rate. 

On the 7th we reached the place of a grazier, named Nel, 
about thirty miles from the foot of the Zwartberg, whose ridges 
now rose dark and massive before us. A small but permanent 
fountain furnished water for the flocks, and there was some 
small appearance of vegetation in the vicinity. In other 
respects the place was very wretched and dreary ; and Nel 
complained that he was sadly plagued by lions and wolves. 
A daughter of this boor*s, a girl about fifteen years of age, was 
one of the comeliest females of the European race I had seen 
in the colony. 

We continued our journey for four days longer through a 
country nearly of the same character ; for some time as level 
as a lake, and afterwards composed of long undulating ridges 
of dark purple slate. Having abandoned the course of the 
Ghamka on its approach towarda the Zwartberg, we directed 
our route along the skirts of that black and barren ridge of 



JOY tJPOK REACHING WATER. 185 

moantains, — crossings many beds of torrents, which exhibited 
evident marks of being occasionally filled with streams of vast 
power and volume, though at present few of them afforded 
even a draught of brackish water to refresh us and our melan- 
choly cattle. In the channel of one of these, named the Dwyka, 
or Rhinoceros River, we halted on the 9th about midnight. 
Next morning I found the bed of this river, which was covered 
with blue sand, to be more than a hundred yards in width, but 
without a drop of water. By digging pits in the sand, how- 
ever, we obtained enough, though of very indifferent quality, 
to furnish a scanty supply for our cattle, and to fill our kegs 
and bottles for the two following days. We then pushed on 
as fast as the exhausted oxen could travel, for there was not a 
drop of water to be had for a space of nearly forty miles. With 
great exertion we got through this last and worst tract of the 
desert ; and, at length, about midnight on the 11th, we reached 
the banks of the Buffalo River, and heard, to our great delight, 
the rushing sound of a running stream. Our oxen had scented 
the water at a distance, long before either the rush of its current, 
or the far louder shrilling sound of the myriads of frogs that 
piped and croaked along its margin, could be heard; and, as 
we approached it, the loose cattle ran off at full speed to the 
water ; and even those in the teams could with difficulty be 
restrained firom following their example, and plunging headlong 
with the wagons into the river. And no wonder ; for since we 
had lef); the Sneeuwberg, on the 27th of August, we had not 
met with a flowing stream, excepting the Salt River ; and the 
poor animals had been for most part of the time on short 
allowance both of water and of food. 

Next morning (Sept. 12th) at sun-rise, when I issued from 
my wagon, I was equally astonished and delighted with the 
change in the aspect of the country. We were still on the skirts 
of the Karroo, and the general outline of the landscape was 
precisely similar to that of the desert we had just passed ; but 
there was all the difference between life and death. Around us 
were still the same monotgnous plains and ridges, covered with 



188 



CHAPTER X. 

Residence in Cape Town — Favourable Prospects — Professions 
and Character of the Government— Permission to publish a 
Journal refused — Commissioners of Inquiry — Mr. Pair' 
baim^^Establishment of a privaie Academy — A Magazine 
and Newspaper commenced — Jealousy of the Government 
— The Cape * Reign of Terror* — Suppression of the 
Newspaper — Discontinuance of the South African Journal 
— Persecution of the Editors — Suppression of the Literary 
Society — Conduct of the Government Press — JDephrahU 
state of Society — Ruin of the Authors Prospects, 

My residence in Cape Town continued from September, 
1822, to February, 1825, with the internal only of one short 
excursion to which I shall afterwards advert* This period was 
by far the busiest, and, to me, the most eventful portion of the 
six years which I spent in South Africa. But as it would be 
impossible, even were it desirable, to comprise in this volume 
a detailed account of all the transactions in which I was then 
engaged, I shall confine myself chiefly to such characteristic 
occurrences as, while they serve to illustrate my own case, may 
convey to English readers some idea of the state of the colony 
at that period. 

For some time after my first arrival in Cape Town things 
appeared to wear a very favourable aspect. The Governor had 
declared himself a friend to the mitigation of slavery, and had 
just issued a proclamation containing some beneficial and many 
plausible enactments ; and, for the first time in the history of 
the colony, a white man was capitally punished for the murder 
of a slave. Great anxiety was professed for the establishment 
of English schools, and the encouragement of the English 
language and literature in South Africa. The public library, 
now under my personal charge, appeared to be warmly patron- 
ised by the Governor, and by all the chief functionaries. There 



FAVOURABLE PROSPECTS. 189 

was some talk also of offering me the superintendence of the 
GoFernment Gazette, and of rendering that journal suhservient 
to the diffusion of useful information throughout the colony. 
This was an ohject quite to my liking, and in which I only 
wanted the countenance of government to engage my most 
devoted services. 

While matters exhibited this encouraging aspect, and while 
I saw opening around me, as I thought, fields of public useful- 
ness far beyond my own humble powers adequately to occupy, 
I wrote home to invite Mr. Fairbaim, an early and intimate 
friend, to join me at Cape Town, in order to share with me in 
the toils, and (as I then hoped) the honours, of the career I 
had too sanguinely sketched out for our conjoint activity. My 
friend, with an ardour equal to my own, and with acquirements 
far surpassing mine, came at my call — to share my toils — and 
with me to suffer treatment to which I shall leave the reader 
to apply the fitting epithet when he has read this chapter *. 



* The following extract from a letter which I received from Mr. Fairhaim 
on his accepting my invitation, will at least show how different were the views 
and sentiments he brought with him from those of which he was afterwards so 
malignantly accused : — 

March 2, 1823. 

" It gives me unspeakable pleasure to find you once more among * Books 
and men.^ Your late acquaintance, the lions and quaggos, having lost their 
ancient veneitition for the muses, you had good authority for turning to the 
more docile Batavi-Africani, I have no doubt from what you tell me, and 
from the accounts I read of the Cape, that your views in Cape Town are well 
founded, and cannot, without some unforeseen mischief, fail to be realised to a 
very satisfiustory extent. I will join you (D. V.) about six weeks after you 
receive this epistle. My resolution was finally taken upon reading your last 
letter, and all my friends here approve of it. * * * 

" Your hint about Magazines and Newspapers pleases me exceedingly. What 
should hinder us from becoming the Franklins of the Kaap 9 The history of 
the settlement requires to be brought down by rational men on the spot for a 
good number of years. Little or nothing has been done in the natural history 
of South Africa since Sparrman and Yaillant ; and it is a rich region in that 
respect. There are still unknown kingdoms, or at least provinces, for us to 
explore. 

** I have a number of literary schemes in my head, some of which may 
famish us with matter for communion. I suppose you have no such thing as 
public lectures among you on any subject. Yet surely popular lectures ou 
Chemistry, Geology, Botany, and other departments of science, might be 
rendered both acceptable and useful to your new countrymen. Turn your 
thoughts to this topic till we meet. 



190 CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

Long' before Mr. Fairbaim had joined me, however, I had 
acquired a more intimate acquaintance with the character of 
the colonial administration, and formed a truer estimate of their 
views. I soon saw that their professed anxiety to encourage 
education and the diffusion of knowledge, was a piece of political 
hypocrisy, assumed to cloak the real character of the govern- 
ment from the prying eyes of his Majesty's Commissioners of 
Inquiry, whose arrival in the colony was then daily expected. 
Of Colonel Bird's inclination to promote my views, and to 
encourage a more liberal use of the press than had formerly 
been permitted, I could have no doubt ; but that officer no 
longer possessed any influence. An irreconcilable quarrel had 
taken place between him and Lord Charles Somerset ; and his 
Excellency's counsels were now chiefly directed by a man who 
once pretty accurately described his own character by saying, 
that he was * a Whig in principle and a Tory in practice.' His 
avowed principles were generally sound and liberal ; but he was 
not long in proving himself to be the unscrupulous promoter 
of measures utterly subversive of all enlightened policy and 
good government. He might be termed the Metternich of 
our petty political theatre ; and he seemed to suit the times 
and the place, for the Governor, under the flimsy veil of late- 
assumed liberality, was by education, habit, and character, as 
determined a foe to free discussion, and as intolerant of any 
the slightest opposition to his own arbitrary will and narrow 
views, as if he had been bred up at the feet of the Holy 
Alliance. 



(( 



lu Europe, and especially in Britain, so many great poets are looldi^ on 
the same objects that we see, and describing them i^ith so much force and 
beanty, that one feels oneself fairly *" overcowed,* and dare not even aspire to 
be heard. Who can think of aught but listening when Byron, Wordsworth, 
Scott, Coleridge, and Campbell, are sending their strong sweet yoices through 
every winding vale of this delightful land ? The character of African sceiwry 
is, I suppose, different from ours. The manners of the singular tribes sur- 
rounding you— your own destination at the extremity of the ' dry nurse of lions* 
—in every circumstante I can think of, there is much to excite deepen, and 
fully employ the strongest imagination. What should hinder us, my dear 
fnend, from * giving to song' the unknown streams and nameless moantains of 
the Kaap ?" 



PUBLICATION OF A JOURNAL REFUSED. 191 

From such a g^overnment I saw there was little to hope ; 
hut, as great reforms were anticipated from the investigations 
of the Commissioners of Inquiry, I resolved to keep myself as 
independent of government patronage as I could, and look 
forward to better times. Meanwhile, it was necessary to secure 
a competent income for my &mily ; for my appointment in the 
library was not only inadequate in emolument, but also (as I 
was speedily made to feel) most precarious in tenure — ^being, 
in fact, like almost every other appointment in the colony, 
entirely dependent on the pleasure of the Governor. I there- 
fore made arrangements for receiving under my charge a few 
youths for private tuition, and had soon as many from the 
principal families of the place as I could conveniently attend to. 

In renouncing all idea of connection with the Government 
Gazette, however, I did not abandon my views of rendering 
the press subservient to the grand object of public instruction, 
but determined to establish, if possible, an independent perio- 
dical in Cape Town. I was encouraged to prosecute this purpose 
by the most enlightened inhabitants of the colony, both English 
and Dutch; and I soon found a zealous coadjutor in the Rev. 
Mr. Faure, one of the Dutch clergymen of Cape Town, who 
entertained similar views for the instruction of his countrymen. 

As we made no secret of our scheme, some rumour of it 
soon reached the ears of the Governor; and while we were 
engaged in preparing a prospectus for public circulation, and a 
memorial to his Excellency, soliciting permission to publish 
our projected journals (without which we knew we could not 
proceed a single step), I received a visit from a gentleman 
previously unknown to me, a confidential retainer at that time 
of our Colonial Court. He strove earnestly to persuade me 
that the prosecution of the enterprise I had in view, would be 
detrimental to my personal interests in the colony ; but finding 
me deaf to his representations on that score, he at length 
plainly told me that Lord Charles Somerset had expressed to 
him his opinion in regard to our projected undertaking, and 
that his Excellency's opinion was decidedly averse to it. 



192 COMMISSIONERS OF INQUIRY. 

Unmoved by this intimation, Mr. Faure and I sent in our 
memorial to the Goyemor on the drd of February, 1823. 
After waiting five weeks, we received a verbal reply through 
the lips of the Colonial Secretary, in the following words : — 
<* His Excellency the Governor has not seen your application 
in a favourable light." 

This response was rather too much in the ' Grand Seignior* 
style to satisfy me ; and 1 spoke of writing again, to solicit 
either the honour of a personal interview, or the satisfisiction of 
a written reply. This course the Colonial Secretary (as a 
private friend) anxiously deprecated. The Governor's jealousy 
of an independent press, he said, was too deep-rooted to be 
influenced by any force of argument ; and to demand a written 
reply would be regarded as a most o£fensive proceeding. If 
insisted on^ he significantly added that a written reply would 
doubtless be given, but probably in such terms as might prove 
most prejudicial to my future prospects in the colony. Such 
being the state of things, there was no alternative but either 
to transmit our application to the Home Government, and thus 
place ourselves in an attitude of opposition to the Governor, 
or submit in silence, and wait patiently for better times. Like 
prudent men we chose the latter course. 

The Commissioners, Mr. Bigge and Major Colebrooke, 
arrived in July following. They received with attention all 
my communications, and, so far as I could judge, appeared dis- 
posed to appreciate fully my views in regard to the press. But 
their commission did not authorise them to interfere, or even 
to express an opinion in the colony, on this or any similar 
topic. They could only report to the Home Government ; and 
to us there was, therefore, still no choice but to wait the result 
with renewed patience. 

A few months afterwards, Mr. Fairbairn arrived ; and as there 
now appeared only a remote probability of our being enabled to 
avail ourselves of the important services of the press in further- 
ance of our schemes, we resolved to direct our exclusive atten- 
tion, for the present, to the establishment of a private academy 



ACADEMY ESTABLISHED. 193 

for the instruction of the colonial youth. There existed at that 
period no public institution for classical education, and no pri- 
Tate academy of any respectability, with the exception of one 
recently opened for the Dutch- African youth by my friend Mr. 
Faure. Our scheme was therefore warmly encouraged by the 
most influential inhabitants of Cape Town and its vicinity, and 
especially by such of the civil functionaries and military officers 
as had families. Thus supported, we furnished a large house 
in the outskirts of the town, and opened our academy with the 
most fftYourable prospects of success. Nor were those antici- 
pations erroneous. In a very short time, we numbered among 
our pupils the sons of almost all the principal British residents, 
and many of the Dutch ; a considerable number being placed 
as boarders under my roof. The regular superintendence of 
the establishment devolved on Mr. Fairbaim, who was emi- 
nently qualified to do it justice, being an accomplished scholar, 
well versed both in ethical and physical science, and experienced 
in classical tuition. My own services in the establishment 
were comparatively of slight importance ; and my time, more- 
over, was still almost entirely occupied by the attendance 
required at the government library. 

While matters were in this position, I was surprised, on the 
2nd of December, by a summons from the Governor to receive 
a communication on the subject of the press. His Excellency 
informed me that Earl Bathurst had been pleased to permit the 
publication of our proposed journal, provided care was taken 
that nothing appeared in it '< detrimental to the peace and safety 
of the colony." After some admonitory remarks of his own, 
Lord Charles gave, with obvious reluctance and with a very ill 
grace^ his sanction for us to proceed with the publication. 

The way being thus opened, Mr. Faure and I immediately 
announced our intention of publishing our respective journals 
in Dutch and English every two months alternately, — six 
numbers of either publication thus appearing annually. Mr. 
Fairbaim then joined me as co-editor of the ^ South- African 

K 



] 94 NEWSPAPEa COMMENCED. 

Journal/ Mr. Faure*8 work was entitled < De Zoid- Afiikaansch 
Tydschrift/ which has the same signification in Datch. 

At the same time/ Mr. Greig, a printer, who had recently 
arrived from England, and established a printing press in Cape 
Town, commenced the publication of a weekly newspaper, 
entitled the ^ South- African Commercial Advertiser.' Every 
such attempt had heretofore been at once arbitrarily quashed by 
the colonial authorities ; but the presence of the Commission- 
ers of Inquiry, and the decision of Earl Bathurst in our case, 
deterred the government from then directly interfering with 
Mr. Greig's publication, although they went as &r as they 
decently could to discountenance and discourage it. The first 
number of this newspaper appeared on the 7th, and a second on 
the 14th of January, 1824. Hi£herto, neither Mr. Fairbaim 
nor I had any connection, and scarcely any acquaintance, with 
Mr. Greig ; but after issuing his first two numbers, he found 
himself in want of editorial aid, and solicited us to undertake 
the literary management of the paper. As the control of an 
efficient press, with a view to the diffusion of usefril knowledge 
throughout the colony, was the great object of our ambition, 
we agreed, after coming to a clear understanding in regard to 
principles, to undertake this charge also. 

For a few months every thing went on most prosperously. 
The newspaper, which we published both in English and 
Dutch, was popular beyond our most sanguine expectations ; 
and our magazine, of which the first number was issued on the 
5th of March, was also warmly welcomed by a respectable body 
of subscribers. We were anxious to merit public support by inde- 
fatigable attention to our various duties. Nor had we unde^ 
taken more than what with systematic industry and division of 
labour we could easily execute. I had ample leisure in the 
government library for literary composition ; and with a coad- 
jutor so able, the editorship of a weekly paper and a two* 
monthly magazine was rather a pastime than a task. Our 
academy also was in a very flourishing state, and the number 
of pupils constantly increasing. It was most efficiently con- 



JEALOUSY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 195 

dacted by Mr. Fairbaim; the classical languages^ and other 
superior branches of education^ being taught exclusively by 
himseif ; while subordinate teachers were employed under his 
superintendence for the Dutch> French^ and other modem 
lang^uages, and for drawing, mensuration, and similar depart* 
meats. Our most sanguine hopes of private prosperity and 
public usefulness seemed about to be fully realised. 

In order to lessen^ if possible, the morbid jealousy of the 
Governor, we printed our magazine at the government press, 
although the printing thus cost us more, and was far worse 
executed, than if we had consented to have had it done by Mr. 
Greig ; and we ventured to flatter ourselves that the colonial 
authorities, in spite of their former habits^ would, for their own 
credit, under the eyes of his Majesty's Commissioners, not 
venture rashly to interfere with us. But we were soon roughly 
awakened from our dream of security. 

No objection was openly made to any expression in the first 
number of our magazine; though I afterwards learnt that 
several articles had given umbrage to the Governor and his 
confidential advisers *. But it was the newspaper which they 
regarded with the deepest disHke, and which they watched with 
unsleeping vigilance for an opportunity to pounce upon and 

* The articles reported to me as having been considered most ' obnoxious * in 
this number, were the ' Introduction,' by Mr. Fairbaim, which contained some 
remarks on the influence of tlie general diffusion of knowledge in checking the 
abuses of despotic power, and elevating the character of individuals and of nations, 
— « Review of Commissioner Bigge's valuable Report on New South Wales — 
and some verses of mine upon the ' Suppression of a Constitutional Government 
la l^iain, and the extinction of a Free Press in Germany.* I subjoin a few 
of the verses in order to give the reader some idea of the extent to which the 
gpirit of the * Holy Alliance" then prevailed at the Court of our South- African 
aotocncy. 

Alas, for Spain ! that fiercely fought. 

Nor vainly, *gainst a nobler foe ; 
Now by the Bourbon sold and bought. 

And shamed and sunk without a blow. 

Alas, for Spain ! a fitting &te 

Awaits her with her recreant chief; 
Foul superstition, fraud and hate. 

And mockery amidst her grieC 

K 2 



196 JEALOUSY OF THE GOVERNMENT; 

crush it. It was not^ however, till four months after its esiab- 
lishmenty and when the publication had fairly secured the appro- 
bation and warm support of the whole community, that they 
fully made up their minds to throw off the mask of moderation, 
and attempted to smother the new-fledged freedom of the press, 
and in &ct to extinguish all public discussion in any shape. 

We had strictly excluded personality (the besetting vice of 
small communities) fix>m our columns : not the shadow of a 



And thou, betrayed and trampled Pole, 
And Saxon of the Elbe and Rhine, 

I see the iron pierce your bouI— ^ 
The tears commingling with your wine. 

I hear deep curses whispered low— - 
See fingers grasp the warrior^s brand. 

To snap the bondman^s chain — ^but no ! 
Ye have the heart without the hand ! 

But now my glance to England turns, 
A beacon-light 'midst ocean set. 

Impregnable — which brightly bums 
To tell where Freedom lingers yet. 

And to that Guardian Isle the eye 

Of fettered Europe fondly bends. 
Waiting for Freedom's battle cry 

To wake the earth's remotest ends. 

• • • • 

And hark — ^it sounds!— I hear it now— 
And Britain rouses at the peal, 

And binds the helmet on her brow. 

And grasps once more the glittering steeL 

Her mighty voice is on the breeze, 
Her martial step is on the plain, 

Her flag's afloat upon the seas. 
To bid the &llen rise again ! 

Up rise the nations at her call. 
As once they started with a bound 

To hurl to earth the tyrant Gaul 

Who fiercely trod them to the ground. 

But not, as then, their necks to bow 

Ignobly to the traitor's yoke : 
The moral Sampson wakens now-— 

The tyrant's talisman is broke ! 

Yes ! Congresses and Courts must yield 
To Nations bursting from their chain ; 

While, under Britain's guardian shield, 
Law, Freedom, Truth, begin their reign. 



JEALOUSY OF THE GOVERKMEKT. 197 

complaint could be brought against ns on that score. Mere 
party politics we had shunned, as being altogether alien from 
our objects as colonial journalists. Topics likely to excite vio- 
lent controversy in the colony^ such as the Slavery question, 
the condition of the Aborigines, &c. (however decided were 
our own opinions on such points), we had also carefully abstained 
from discussing. We had in fact rejected numerous communi- 
cations on all these subjects, considering it injudicious to arouse 
premature debate^ even on legitimate and important public ques- 
tions^ in the then critical condition of the press and of the 
colony. We had, therefore, flattered ourselves that it would 
be scarcely possible for the most jealous scrutiny to find a 
plausible pretext for interference. But it was our singular fsXe 
to be sacrificed not for sins actuallif committed, but from the 
apprehension of those that we might possibly commit. 

We had introduced the practice of reporting law cases, and 
on this point the Governor and some of his advisers happened 
to be peculiarly sensitive; insomuch that although they had 
nothing to allege against the paper as respects the impartiality 
and discretion with which such reports had been hitherto given, 
they could not tolerate the continuance of such a privilege. 
The immediate cause of their interference was this. There was 
a prosecution for libel then before the Supreme Court, at the 
instance of the Governor. In the course of the trial the defen- 
dant (one Edwards, a reckless and desperate adventurer,) had 
brought forward certain scandalous and libellous charges against 
the character of Lord Charles Somerset^ both in his public and 
private capacity ; and to prevent the possibility of such charges 
being reported in the newspaper^ the Fiscal^ was instructed 
to assume the censorship. This took place on the evening 

* The powera of a Cape Fiscal, an officer (now superseded) combining the 
functions of Attorney General and Superintendent of Police, are thus described 
by the author of the * State of the Cape of Good Hope in 1822/ — " He is 
powerful to punish the slave and to accuse the free man. He may bring forward 
charges tyrannically, or withhold them corruptly. He may tease one part of the 
society by little vexatious police regulations, and indulge another part in less 
venial acts,"^ &c. &c. 



198 JEALOUSY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

of the 4th of May, after we had corrected the leading article 
for the paper of the following morning, which happened to 
he of my composition** From the report of Edwards' trial 
also, every offensive aQimioii had heen carefuUj expunged; 



* It was a carious coincidence that this last leading article had been written 
for the express purpose of warning the colonists ^gsiiu^ being led astray by such 
desperadoes as Edwards, or* more perilous still, by isch wretches as Oliver the 
Spy, who was then at the Cape, and in the active employment of the govern* 
ment. I subjoin the concluding paragraphs, as a speGunien of onr nniibim 
political tone. 

*< To the Dutch Colonists, now our countrymen and lellow-snbjecia, we par* 
ticularly address the following remarks. However much they may oooanooally 
have been galled by the unfair or unfeelii^f sarcasms of EInglish travieQerB and 
journalists, they may rest assured that the regards of the government and pee|de 
of England are directed towards them with indulgent liberality and affbctieiB. 
Let authors be judged of by their words, but nadons and governments only by 
their actions. England, of all mitions that ever existed, pursues the most 
liberal system of policy towards the colonies she has won or nurtured. Her 
ministers, no doubt, are fallible, like other men ; they have sometimes ened ifi 
regard to the administration of the colonies, and may possibly err again ; but it 
must be from ignorance of the truth, if the British Government ever pwrntts 
deliberate injustice to be done towards any appendage of the empire. TMs 
colony, if abandoned by England, would fall an easy prey to the first rapacious 
tyrant that chose to seize upon it Under her free and fostering guardianship 
alone, may we rationally hope to attain permanent prosperity, Gberty, and 
happiness. 

**■ Let. therefore, no temporary vexations, nor any possible accumulation c^ 
private annoyances, ever for a moment weaken the firm loyalty of our fellow- 
subjects (whether Dutch or English) towards the wise, just, and beneficent 
government of England. Is she not ddng for us all we have ever asked of her 
•—and more ? Has she not sent out able and honourable men to enquire into 
our local grievances, disadvantages, and restricticms — his Majesty's Commis- 
sioners, who are at this moment traversii^ the remotest districts of our coontryi 
to hear and see and report upon \riiatever requires to be amended ? Whoever 
now sits sulkily down and l^oods fretfully over his wrongs, or disadvantages, 
instead of avaiUng himself of the legitimate channel which has been so con^ 
siderately opened for their redress, deserves to bear them for ever un]H6ed— 
and can never hereafter ascribe the &ult to the neglect of the British Go* 
vernment. 

**" Above all, let all good and patriotic citizens beware of any intemperance^ 
word or deed, towards any individual to whom the legal authority of govemm<»it 
has been delegated. We are Freemen ; and, if any of our rulers do oppressiim 
or wrong, they can be called to answer for it at the bar of their country, as well 
as tbe meanest of their fellow-subjects : but their office and persons ought to 
be duly respected so long as they continue to oecupy tbe stations to which oar 
gracious Sovereign has been pleased to promote them. If there be any person 
in the colony (we trust that there are none) who would teach men disrespect 
to even the shadow of Legal Authority, let good citizens be aware of them. 
Fools and desperadoes may talk or act intemperately : wise and patriotic mea 
ought to be distinguished by candour, calmness, and self-po8sessio&.* 



SUPPRESSION OF NEWSPAPER. 199 

as was afterwards proved to the Commissioners of Inquiry, 
hy the production of the attested proof sheet, actually sent to 
press when the Fiscal interfered. 

The crisis having thus arrived, Mr. Fairhaim and I ex« 
plained to Mr. Greig the course we had determined to pursue ; 
namely, never to compromise our birth-right as British subjects 
by editing any publication under a censorship* But we advised 
him to weigh maturely all the consequences of discontinuing 
the newspaper as they might affect his own interests, and 
either act upon our principles, or continue the newspaper 
without us, as he might judge best. Mr. Greig, however, 
declared himself resolved to follow the same course, and 
announced next morning, in our last paper, that in conse- 
quence of the Fiscal's assumption of the censorship, the publi-* 
cation would be discontinued until the decision of his Majesty's 
Government on the subject should be ascertained. 

This course, which necessarily involved an immediate appeal to 
the Government, and perhaps to the Parliament, at home, would 
seem to have been quite unexpected by Lord Charles Somerset 
and his advisers, and to have exasperated his lordship beyond 
all bounds of common prudence or decorum. He instantly 
issued a warrant, upon his own responsibility (a perilous 
power lodged with the governor for great state emergencies 
only), directing Mr. Greig*s press to be sealed up, and order- 
ing himself to leave the colony within a month from the date 
of the warrant. 

The Cape < Reign of Terror* had now commenced, and 
events succeeded each other with a rapidity and violence 
which the actors mistook for energy and decision. My turn 
came next. The second number of our Magazine had been 
published on the 7th of May. The warrant for Greig's banish- 
ment was issued on the 8th. On the Idth the Fiscal sent me 
a summons to attend at his office, where he informed me that 
several articles and paragraphs in our Magazine had given 
high offence to the Government; that had the obnoxious 
passages been observed while the work was in the press, he 



200 DISCONTINUANCE OF MAGAZINE. 

(the Fiscal) would have expuoged them, or suppressed the 
number ; and that he must now have a satisfactory < pledge ' 
that nothing < obnoxious or offensive to Government ' should 
appear in future. After a long conversation — during which 
I pressed him in vain to show me bj what law, Colonial, 
Dutch, or English, he assumed the right of restricting the 
legal privileges of the press, — I said that as it was quite impos- 
sible for us even to conjecture what might be deemed * ob- 
noxious ' by the Colonial Government, and as we could not 
admit any such right of censorship as he claimed, our only 
safe course, and the best course for all parties, would be to 
"discontinue the publication for the present. Accordingly next 
morning Mr. Fairbairn and I sent the Fiscal a written notice 
to that e£fect, and on the 15th the discontinuance of the work 
was announced by advertisement in the Gazette. 

These occurrences produced a strong sensation in Cape 
Town. No public meeting could be held without the Go- 
vernor's permission ; but a petition to the King in Council, 
praying for the extension to the colony of the privil^es of 
a free press, was drawn up, and signed by a very large propor- 
tion of the most respectable inhabitants, including almost the 
whole of the English merchants. This petition was couched 
in the most moderate and decorous language, and only referred 
in very calm and measured terms to the recent extraordinary 
transactions. Such was the panic, however, that had been 
excited by the sentence of banishment issued against Mr. 
Greig, that comparatively few of the Dutch inhabitants dared 
to sign it. The Governor's power, they said, * was absolute, 
and his resentment ruin.' They durst not venture, therefore, 
even to petition the King, contrary to the pleasure of the 
.Governor. Such abject dread of arbitrary power found little 
sympathy, of course, in our breasts. Mr. Fairbairn and I 
signed the petition. 

This expression of public sentiment alarmed while it enraged 
the Government. They wished to smother the press without 
provoking public discussion at home. Another attempt was 



PSRSSCUTtOlY 09 THE EDITORS. 201 

made to save appearances. Lord Charles summoned me to 
appear immediately before him at his audience-room in the 
Colonial Office. I found him with the Chief Justice, Sir 
John Truter, seated on his right hand, and the second num- 
ber of our * South- African Journal ' lying open before him *. 



* The article wbich was pointed out by the Fiscal, and again by the Go- 
vernor at this interview, as the most * obnoxious,' was one on the State and 
Prospects of the English Emigrants in South Africa, — more especially some of 
the concluding remarks. The lamentable condition of the settlers at that time, 
and the mode in which they were treated by the Colonial Government, will be 
afterwards noticed. I insert a sample of this article, to give the English reader 
some idea of what in those days was denounced in a British colony as/ obnoxious,* 
* radicid,' and * seditious.^ 

*' We come now to consider the causes of the failure of this scheme of 
om^fration. 

*•*" 1. The first and most decisive cause, we apprehend, is the population 
\amii% preceded, instead of having ^//ot^rec/ the influx of capital. 

** 2. An arbitrary system of government, and its natural consequences,-^ 
abuse of power by local functionaries, monopolies, restrictions, &c. 

*< 3. The vacillating and inefficient system pursued in regard to the CafFers. 

**• ^, The appearance of the rust, an unprecedented and till then almost 
.unknown disease in the wheat crops. 

^ Capital and free government are essential to the success of colonisation. 
North America, from the possession of the latter chiefly, has far outstripped fjl 
other European colonies. The Spanish and Portuguese settlements, and the 
Cape of Good Hope, from the want of both, are yet in their infancy. In 
speaking of the Cape, we intend no reflection on our existing authorities. They 
have, no doubt, considered it their duty to administer the Government as 
authorised by England, and as it devolved upon them from their predecessors. 
We ascribe neither praise nor blame to any individual, but we cannot pass over 
a cause so influential without stating it frankly, though not invidiously." 

This was the most * personal * paragraph in our Journal, though it was only 
one of many denounced by Lord Charles and his Fiscal. 

It is not a little gratifying to mo to be enabled here to add, that not very 
long after the suppresnon of our Magazine, I received the commum'cation which 
I have taken the liberty to insert below, from one whose appreciation of the 
work afforded us at the time no slight consolation. Having forwarded our 
Magazine and a pamphlet upon the state of the Settlers to Mr. Brougham (the 
late Lord Chancellor), that eminent person thus replied to the author, who 
was then personally entirely unknown to him. (A sentence or two relating to 
another topic are omitted) :— 

" London, Nov, 20, 1824. 
"Sir, 

'* I have received your letter of the 1st of September, in which you refer to 
a former communication ; and I lose no time in letting you know that I never 
received any such letter or papers*. About the same time with your letter of 

• The letter referred to was one which I had addressed to Mr. Brougham 
after the suppression of the Newspaper and Magazine. It contained an account 
of those proceedings, and was accompanied by a file of Newspapers ; but the 
packet, it appears, was lost. 

k3 



202 PERSECUTION OF THE BDITOR9» 

There was a storm on his brow, and it burst forth at once 
npon me like a long-gathered south-easter from Table Moon- 
tain* '< So, Sir I " he began— <' you are one of those who dare 
to insult me, and oppose my government T* — and then he 
launched forth into a long tirade of abuse ; scolding, upbraid- 
ing, and taunting me, — with all the domineering arrogance of 
mien and sneering insolence of expression of which he was so 
great a master — reproaching me above all for my {ngrcUitude 
for his personal favours. While he thus addressed me, in the 
most insulting style, I felt my frame tremble with indigna- 
tion ; but I saw that the Chief Justice was placed there for 
a witness of my demeanour, and that my destruction was 
sealed if I gave way to my feelings, and was not wary in my 
words. I stood up, however, and confronted this most arrogant 
roan with a look of disdain under which his haughty eye 
instantly sunk, and replied to him with a calmness of which I 
had not a few minutes before thought myself capable. I told 
him that I was quite sensible of the position in which I stood 
-^a very humble individual before the representative of my 
sovereign ; but I also knew what was due to myself as a 
British subject and a gentleman, and that I would not submit 
to be rated in the style he had assumed by any man, whatever 
were his station or his rank. I repelled his charges of having 
acted unworthy of my character as a government servant and 
a loyal subject; — I defended my conduct in regard to the 
press, and the character of our magazine, which he said was 
full of < calumny and falsehood;' — I asserted my right to 
petition the king for the extension of the freedom of the press 

September Ist, I received a Pamphlet and a Magazine, the latter of which I 
have read ; — and I return you many thanks for the pleasure and informadoo 
which it has afforded mc. A journal so ably conducted in the distant colony 
where you reside, is highly creditable to our country ; and by diffusing usefal 
information and sound and liberal opinions, it cannot fail to produce the best 
effects. • • • * 

** I expect soon to have the pleasure of reading your pamphlet. In the 
meantime I ifnsh every success to yourself and Mr. Fairbaim, both in the coo* 
duct of your Academy and Journal. And I am 

"" Your obliged and obedient servant, 

« T. Pringle, Esq:* « H. Brougrim. 



PERSECUTION OF THE EDITORS. 208 

to the colony ; and I denied altogether the ^ personal ohliga- 
tions ' with which he upbraided me, haying never asked nor 
received from him the slightest personal £ivoar> imless the 
lands allotted to my party, and my own appointment to the 
Government Library, were considered 8ach,-~though the latter 
was, in &ct, a public duty assigned to me, in compliance with 
the recommendations of the Home Government* This situa* 
tion, however, I now begged to resign, since I would not 
compromise my free agency for that or for any appointment 
his lordship could bestow. 

Lord Charles then saw he had gone a step too fSur. He 
had, in fact, misapprehended my character, and had made a 
not uncommon mistake, in taking a certain bashfiilness of 
manner (mauvaise honte) for timidity of spirit. And as his 
object then was not absolutely to quarrel with, but merely to 
intimidate me, and thus render me subservient to his views, 
he immediately lowered his tone, and had the singular meanr 
ness, after the insulting terms he had used, to attempt to coax 
me by a little flattery, and by throwing out hints of his dispo- 
sition to promote my personal views, if I would conduct myself 
* discreetly/ He wished the magazine, he said, still to go on ; 
and even alleged that the Fiscal had in some points exceeded 
his instructions in regard to us. But this attempt to cajole, 
when he found he could not bully me, disgusted me even more 
than his insolence. I saw the motive, and despised it : I saw 
the peril, too, and feared it: ^ timeo Danaos / * I resolutely 
declined, therefore, his repeated invitations (to which he called 
the Chief Justice formally to bear witness) to recommence the 
magazine, unless legal protection were granted to the press. 
And so ended my last conference with Lord Charles Somerset. 
I retired, and immediately sent in the resignation of my 
Government appointment. 

We still hoped we might, at all events, be allowed to go 
on quietly with our academy, and now resolved to devote our 
exclusive attention to it, and to other objects remote from 



204 P£RSICimOK OF THE EDITORS. 

politics, till better times should dawn on the colony. But we 
speedily found that what some of our Dutch friends had said 
was hut too true — ^the Governor's power was absolute, and 
his resentment ruin.' Lord Charles, after this conference, 
appears to have determined to crush us totally. He could 
not decently, without some misdemeanour on our part, shut 
up our academy, but he openly denounced Mr. Fairbaim and 
myself as ' inveterate radicals ; ' and declared our academy to be 
* a seminary of sedition.' Such sentiments openly avowed by 
a Governor armed with almost despotic authority, however 
much disliked personally, had an amazing effect. In the eyes 
of some persons opposition to the pleasure of * the powers that 
be/ right or wrong, is always a su£Scient proof of democratic 
or seditious principles ; and in the present case, many who 
had no respect whatever either for the opinions or the cha- 
racter of Lord Charles Somerset, had nevertheless great appre- 
hension of offending him by appearing to patronise those 
whom he seemed determined to put down. The personal in* 
fluence of a Governor, in such a community as the Cape, can 
indeed be but faintly conceived by people in England. Under 
the old system, or what Lord Charles used to call ' the decent 
order of things,' that influence was all but omnipotent. 

The consequences may easily be conceived. From that 
moment the prosperity of our academy was blasted. Week 
after week pupils were taken away, some on one pretext, some 
on another; until, in the course of a few months, scarcely 
half our former number remained. This result was probably 
accelerated by certain occurrences which took place shortly 
after the affair of the press, and of which the following is not 
the least memorable and characteristic. 

The establishment of a Literary and Scientific Society at 
the Cape had been one of the objects to which we had most 
earnestly directed our attention, with a view to the intellectual 
improvement of the colony ; and in order to prepare the public 
mind for the formation of such an association, two able articles 



PERSECUTION OF THE EDITORS* 205 

from the pen of Mr. Fairbairn had appeared in snccessire 
nmnbers of our Magazine. After the suppression of the press^ 
we still cherished the hope of succeeding in this object, which 
had now become of more importance than erer, since by that 
event, ' light ' w&s ^ by one entrance quite shut out.' Besides, 
as such societies have been generally tolerated, and even 
liberally patronised by some of the most despotic Governments 
of ancient and modern times, we flattered ourselves that even 
our South- African < divan' would be disposed rather to 
encourage than obstruct the direction of the public mind to 
such pursuits, both for the sake of their own credit in the eyes 
of the Commisioners and the Home Government, and in order 
to withdraw attention firom more unpleasant topics* The 
Governor's personal hostility towards ourselves, we hoped, 
might be perhaps abated, when he saw that our views were 
exclusively directed to objects from which all political discus- 
sions was strictly excluded. And we entertained, moreover, 
the not unworthy expectation of extending our influence in 
society, and even of benefiting our academy, by exhibiting 
proofs of the moderation of our principles, and the practical 
utility of our aims. 

On the 11th of July, accordingly, we met with a few of our 
friends at the house of Messrs. Thompson and Pillans^, 
merchants, in Cape Town, to concert measures for carrying 
this purpose into e£fect. Some fundamental resolutions were 
adopted; a committee of three persons was appointed to 
prepare specific regulations; and I was invited to act as 
secretary pro tempore. We had, from time to time, similar 
preliminary meetings, at each other's houses, at which the 
regulations of the proposed spciety were maturely considered, 
and several persons of scientific acquirements were added to 

* The former of these gentlemen is the author of ^* Travels and AdventtTrcs 
in Southern Africa,** published in 1827. And besides him and his intelligent 
partner, Mr. Pillans, our other associates at this meeting were the Rev. Dr. 
PhiUp, Superintendent of Missions; Messrs. W. T. Blair, of the E. I. Com. 
pany's Civil Service ; H. E. Rutherfoord, merchant, B. Moodie, W. L, Von 
Buchenroder, and C. T. Thomhill, 



206 PERSECUTION OF THE EDITORS. 

our number. Meanwhile, to g^ard against any possible mis* 
constmction of our views, copies of an address, pointing out 
tbe precise objects of the proposed institution, and a report of 
our sub-committee on the same topic, together with the rules 
adopted bj the founders, were transmitted to the Colonial 
Office, the Fiscal, the Members of the Court of Justice, and 
to the Commissioners of Inquiry *. 

So perfectly unexceptionable did the principles of the 
association appear even to persons most afraid of giving 
umbrage to the Governor, and so praiseworthy its objects that 
at our third meeting, which was held on the 1 1th of August, 
applications for admission were presented from a large number 
of respectable individuals, comprising some of the principal 
Government functionaries f. And on purpose to conciliate 
the Governor, by affording him an opportunity of appearing to 



♦ The following are extracts ftom these papers :-— 

^ It has like\nse been found a prudent measure, and very condaciTe to the 
peace and permanency of such associations, to exclude many topics of great 
interest and importance, but on which men^s opinions are formed, rather from 
their natural temperament and the accidents of life, than from universally- 
admitted {ixioms, or indisputable authorities. Under this head, \i^e must rank 
the conduct of existing Governments, or what is called the Politics of the Day, 
Controversial Theology, and in slave-countries, we may add, the subject of 
Slavery.*' 

" W ith the wide field of Physical and Moral Science before us, it would aigne 
no excess of prudence or good taste to step aside into the thorny and perplexed 
ways of uneasy, unfruitful, and interminable controversy. The Geology of 
South Africa, it is agreed by all, still requires elucidation, and no doubt some 
important discoveries in that department await the judicious and patient 
inquirer ; — the Mineralogy of the Cape is yet in its infancy ; — and what a rich^ 
inexhaustible region of delightful research, with a certainty of abundant success, 
does the surface of this Colony present to the Botanist and student of Natural 
Histoiy, for the exercises of their respective talents and observation ! If the 
Society turn its exertions zealously in this direction. Agriculture and the most 
important arts of life may, in a short 'time be improved and extended by 
its labours/* 

*' Rule 2. — Any subject not involving the Politics of the Day or Contro- 
versial Theology, shall be open to discussion at the ordinary meetings ; and these 
excepted topics shall at no time be admitted into the papers or conversations <A 
the Society.'* 

•f The members at this time had increased to sixty-one, comprising amoDi; 
others the Chief Justice, and two other members of the Bench, the Dq>aty 
Fiscal, Mr. Lind, four other civil servants, two advocates, four ministers of 
religion, nine medical gentlemen, and twenty-one inerchaiita. 



SUPPRESSION OF THE LlTEllARY SOCIETY. 307 

advantage, as the promoter of science and literature in the 
colony^ a deputation was appointed to wait upon his Excel* 
lency, to solicit him to hecome the Patron of the Society. 
This deputation consisted of Sir John Truter, the Chief 
Justice, Dr. Truter, a memher of the Bench (and brother-in- 
law of Mr. Barrow, of the Admiralty), Mr. Cloet6, advocate, 
two Indian residents, two medical gentlemen, and two English 
merchants of Cape Town. Mr. Fairbairn and I, for obvious 
reasons, avoided assuming any unnecessary prominence in the 
business. 

The Governor, however, did not allow time for the deputa* 
tion to wait upon him. He had been watching our proceedings 
all along, with a most feline vigilance, and now sprung forth 
upon us like a tiger from his den. He called the Chief 
Justice to his presence, and gave him such a rating for joining 
the Society, that Sir John, almost frightened out of his wits, 
anxiously entreated me to withdraw his name from the list of 
members ; at the same time assuring me, with a sort of rueful 
simplicity, that he conscientiously believed the institution to 
be a most praiseworthy one, and calculated to be of inestimable 
advantage to the community! 

With Mr. Advocate Cloete his lordship came at once to the 
point, and told him distinctly that he was resolved to crush 
the institution; adding, with vindictive emphasis, that it was 
** quite sufficient for him to know that this Society had 
originated with Mr. Pringle and Mr. Fairbairn — for he was 
fully determined, so long as he held the reins of Government, 
to oppose and thwart every thing, without exception, which 
emanated from them, or in which they were concerned." 

To show that he was in earnest, Mr. Fairbairn and Dr. Philip, 
and afterwards Mr. Pillans, were officially summoned before 
the Fiscal, and charged with holding * illegal meetings ;' and 
a proclamation, datied Feb. 19, 1800, which had been issued by 
Sir George Yonge, during the first occupation of the colony 
by the British, for the suppression of Jacobin Clubs, was read 
to them as the law which would be enforced in the present 
case I should we venture to hold any further meetings. 



208 SUPPRESSION OF THE LITERARY SOCIETY. 

A correspondence then ensued between Mr. Blair (a mild, 
accomplished, and most courteous man), who had presided as 
chairman of our last meeting, and the Colonial Government, 
in which erery effort was used to soothe the Goyemor's 
prejudices, and to obviate, if possible, his objections. But it 
was all in vain. Courtesy and conciliation only drew forth 
further insult. '' His Excellency considers *' (so ran the 
official missive) '^that he should greatly deviate from his 
duty in giving countenance to an establishment conducted 
by persons who have wilfully paid so little regard to the 
Authorities and established Regulations of the Colony." 

Seeing that the Governor was thus inveterately resolved to 
exting^sh our embryo institution, we determined that he 
should at least have the credit of doing it formally and officially, 
and not by mere menace and intimidation. We therefore drew 
up a respectful memorial, and sent it round for the signatures 
of the members. The hostility of the Governor to the institu- 
tion being well known, many were intimidated from signing: 
but still it was sent in with thirty-six respectable names. The 
petition was peremptorily refused ; and the association was, of 
course, immediately broken up. A complete history of the 
affair, with copies of the papers and correspondence, was then 
drawn up by us, and laid before the Commissioners of Inquiry. 

I must hastily pass over, along with many other strange 
occurrences of that period, an intimation which I received 
from a person in the service of Government, and who was 
certainly then on very confidential terms with the acting 
Colonial Secretary, Mr. Peter Brink, that a warrant had been 
signed for the inspection of my private papers by the Fiscalr 
together with those of my friends Dr. Philip and Mr. Fair- 
bairn, on the pretext of searching for < illegal documents.' 
The Fiscal afterwards strenuously denied to the Commissioners 
of Inquiry that any such warrant against me had ever existed : 
but it is certain that his whole conduct at the time, and 
especially his summoning me before the Court of Justice to 
answer his interrogations upon oath, were of a character to 
confirm my belief of some such stigmatising measure being in 



CONDUCT OF THE GOVERNMENT PRESS. 209 

contemplation, as part of the system of terrorism then pursued 
by the Colonial Government. 

It was di£5calt, indeed, to conjecture to what lengths the 
violence of arbitrary power would at that dismal period pro- 
ceed. Fear is the most cruel of all passions, and infuriated 
by the fear of exposure, the Colonial Government seemed 
determined to strike down every man who should dare even 
to look or think disapprobation of its deeds. A frightful 
system of espionage pervaded every circle of society, and 
rendered perilous even the confidence of the domestic hearth. 
Oliver^ the well-known Government spy, who had been sent 
out from England to be provided for at the Cape with a lucra- 
tive situation under Lord Charles, was most actively engaged 
during this crisis, as was universally believed, in his former 
vocation. Informers and false witnesses abounded ; and rumours 
of ^ plots * and < disloyal combinations against the Governor ' 
were assiduously kept afloat, for purposes as obvious as th^y 
were mischievous. 

The Government Gazette had been long systematically 
employed for purposes of public deception, and sometimes 
of personal calumny. It had denounced the most respectable 
heads of the Albany settlers as seditious radicals, merely 
because they proposed to meet to petition the Government 
respecting their grievances. It had sent forth most auda- 
cious misrepresentations, for the purpose of effect in England, 
respecting the Tulbagh Drostdy, the Government free-schools, 
the mitigation of slavery, the state of the frontier, the treat- 
ment of the native tribes, and other topics too multifarious to 
enumerate. Latterly it had been most assiduously employed 
in promulgating hints, and that too in Government procla- 
mations and advertisements, respecting < an evil spirit ' and 
* malignant views * evinced by some of the community ; and 
in recording the presentation of numerous addresses to his 
Excellency, from the Court of Justice, the Government 
Departments, the Burgher Senate, and other public bodies, 
' expressive of the strongest sentiments of loyalty I * This 



210 CONDUCT OF THE 60VERKMENT'<PR£SS. 

dort of work might, ptrbaps, be considered the legitimate pro^ 
vince of such a journal under such a goyemment. But not 
contented even with the serrices of the Gazette, a scurrilous 
pamphlet was surreptitiouslj printed at the Government press 
in October, 1824, for the sole purpose of de&ming the cba« 
racter of the Rev. Dr. Philip, who (for reasons to be afterwards 
noticed) was more obnoxious to the Governor, if that were 
possible, than even Mr. Fairbaim or myself. The fact, from 
its astounding folly, seems scarcely credible, — ^but it is never- 
theless most certain that Dr. Philip obtained a complete copy 
of this pamphlet when only a very few had been distributed, 
and laid it before the Commissioners of Inquiry on the 19th of 
October, and that the &cts of its being printed by the order 
and under the immediate inspection of the acting Colonial 
Secretary, and copies of it circulated by the Governor himself, 
were fiilly substantiated ; and, what was not less remarkable, 
that the printer's name was omitted by the express order from 
the Colonial Office, in the very teeth of a proclamation issued 
four months previously, imposing a heavy penalty for every 
such omission I Five hundred copies were stitched and ready 
for distribution, when the investigations of the Commissioners 
alarmed the Governor ; the copies which had been distributed 
were hastily recalled, and the whole impression destroyed. 

The state of society in Cape Town, and indeed throughout 
the colony, at this period, was truly deplorable. Mutual 
confidence was shaken; distrust, apprehension, and gloom 
everywhere prevailed; and men, according to their several 
characters and circumstances, were perturbed by angry excite- 
ment or prostrated by slavish fear. The singular audacity of 
the Government in some of the transactions I have noticed, 
and in others of a still more startling description which M 
not within the scope of this narrative, absolutely paralysed 
the mass of the community with terror ; and at length im- 
pressed them generally with the conviction that the Governor 
who could venture thus to act under the very eyes of the 
King's Commissioners, must feel himself so strongly backed 



DEPLORABLE STATE OF SOCIXTT. 211 

(U home as to defy alike official inquiry and individual com<» 
plaint. So strong had become this conyiction, that whoever 
was discovered to be a complainant to the Commissioners, or 
supposed to have furnished them voluntarily with any infor- 
mation respecting abuses, was immediately set down as a 
^marked and ruined man^.' And even the Commissioners 
themselves, (though unquestionably as honourable men as 
England ever intrusted with a difficult and delicate public 
duty,) began to be very generally suspected of being either 
the mere puppets of Earl Bathurst, or the blind dupes of 
Lord Charles Somerset; an unworthy surmise, arising from 
the extreme caution which their instructions constrained them 
to observe in regard to all complaints which related to the 
personal conduct of the Governor. Those who, strong in a 
better faith, had dared to vindicate their claims to the privi- 
leges of British subjects, and who by doing so had become 
* obnoxioits' (such was the specific term) to the Colonial 



* The influence of sucli in^ressions in deterring the inhabitants, and esp^* 
dally persons in office, from giving information to the Commissioners, even 
respecting the most notorious abuses and oppressions, may be partly estimated, 
^in spite of the official cautiousness of the language, from some remarks in their 
^ Report upon the Administration of the Government at the Cape of Good 
H4^." " Notwithstanding,** observe the Commissioners, " the favourable 
di^Qtitioa manifested towards us by the head of the Government, we soon had 
leMMi to be convinced that impartial or unsolicited disclosures upon the mode 
in whkh the Grovemment had been administered, or even explanations of the 
particular instances in which the exercise of its authority seemed questionable, 
were not to be expected from the civil i^ervants who at that time held official 
ritnations.** — *^ We have reason to believe that a general understanding existed 
St that time, and which has since been more distinctly pronounced, that any 
dvil servant who should venture to make disdosures to us of drcumstances in 
his department without having previously communicated them to the Colonial 
Government, would be liable to dismissal from office." — " We think it right 
to notice it as an impression in some d^^ree prevalent, and which may therefore 
partly account for the reluctance of individuals to afford us voluntaiy informa- 
tion."— {See Parliamentary Papers for 1827, No. 282). — The real fact is, 
that persons in the service of Government, while they were ostensibly invited 
by public proclamation to aiford every informatian in their power to the Com- 
missioners, were privately given to understand, and even in some instances 
offidally threatened, that they would be 'instantly dismissed from office * if they 
should dare to make any 'gratuitous communication.* I do not make this 
assertion without adequate evidence of the &ct A person in office showed me 
a letter to this effect, addiessed to himself from the Colonial Office, at the very 
period of which I am writing. 



V 



212 DEPLORABLE STATE OF SOCIETY. 



GoYernment, were now looked upon as persons under a sort 
of civil proscription, with whom it was no longer safe to 
associate, or even to hold casnal intercourse*. Many illustra- 
tions, at once ludicrous and humiliating, of the pusillanimous 
prostration of the puhlic mind at this crisis, remain vividly in 
my recollection ; hut I refrain from giving pain to individuals, 
otherwise respectable, by recording them. Nor were people's 
apprehensions apparently without foundation. I shall notice 
only one instance. A clergyman of the Church of England, 
a friend of mine, was informed by a functionary of high rank, 
then the chief adviser of the Governor, that he was regarded 
at Government House as one of the ' disaffected,' because ^ it 
was observed that he still continued to associate with Mr. 
Pringle and Mr. Fairbairn.' It would, however, be harsh, and 
probably unfair, to ascribe without qualification the wJiole of 
this persecution to the Governor personally. Tyrannical and 
vindictive as he was, I have little doubt that much of what 
was then said and done, and of which Lord Charles Somerset 
got the credit, was said and done without his knowledge or 
beyond his intention. But such will ever be the case under a 
system of government such as he had organised, and to which 
he pertinaciously clung till it crumbled beneath his grasp and 
crushed him in its ruins ; a system where integrity and inde- 



* If any reader should fancy that I may have drawn this picture of colonial 
servility too strongly, I would beg to refer him to the statement of a gentleman 
well qualified, from his intimate knowledge of the Cape, and from the station of 
Government Secretary which he so long and ably filled there, to give a correct 
judgment on the subject. In a pamphlet published at Cape Town in 1827, this 
officer makes the following remarks : — 

" It would be to suppose persons very ill informed of the state of society in 
colonies'* [Col. B. should have added, under an arbitrary government^ 
" if it were thought necessary to prove the great extent of influence the opinions 
of Government House command. To he in disgrace at Government House is 
nearly to be banished society — to offend a Governor is nearly to become an 
outlaw. No one dares to look at, or to greet the individual, who has incurred 
viceroyal displeasure ; few venture to give opinions not consonant with those of 
the arbiter of wisdom, who presides over the fortunes of every member of a 
Colonial community.'* — Observations on the Letter addressed by Sir /?. 
Donkin to Earl Bathurst, by Lieutenant-Colonel Bird, Cape Town^ 
1827. 




BUIM OF THE AUTHOR*S PROSPECTS. 213 

pendence found no soil to grow in, where truth could not with 
safety be spoken, and where the servile and the selfish, basely 
solicitous to reconunend themselves in the eyes of their patron, 
could scarcely ML to carry insult and persecution towards the 
objects of his dislike in many cases beyond the bounds he 
himself may have purposed. 

Such is a &int picture of the state of things at the Cape in 
the beginning of October, 1824. Before this period I had 
become convinced that, whatever the final result might be as 
regarded the system of Government, my personal prospects in 
the colony were for the present entirely blasted, and that to 
continue the struggle longer would only sink us deeper in ruin. 
I began therefore to prepare seriously for returning to England, 
where, though my prospects were precarious enough, I should 
at least be once more under the protection of British laws, and 
at liberty to follow whatever course Providence might open to 
me, regardless alike of the favour or the frown of men < drest 
in a little brief authority.' With this view, I resolved to make 
a hasty excursion to the eastern frontier, in order to see once 
more my relatives at Glen-Lynden ; leaving my wife mean- 
while in Cape Town ; and my friend Fairbairn continuing to 
superintend our little academy, which now looked like a con- 
sumptive patient whose recovery is quite hopeless, though 
dissolution may be for a brief space protracted. 



214 



CHAPTER XI. 

Excursion to Ae Interior — Accident nearGenadendal — Return 
to Cape Town — StcUe of Affairs — Second Journey to 
the Eastern Frontier — State of the Settlers in Albany; 
0ieir Calamities and Privations ; their Treatment by the 
Government ; Subscription for their Relief; their Pro- 
gressive Advance, and present Prosperous Condition^ 

Ox the 8th of October, 1824, I set out on my projected 
excursion to the interior, in company with my esteemed 
friends, Mr. W. T. Blair and Captain Miller, of the East 
India Company's Service, who were bound on a journey of 
benevolence to the British settlement in Albany, and to 
the principal missionary stations that lay near our route. 
Travelling on horseback, we passed rapidly through the well- 
peopled district of Stellenbosch, and the vine-cultured vale of 
Franschehoek ; and having crossed by the magnificent pass of 
that name the great range of Drakenstein mountains, we 
reached on the 11th the Moravian settlement of Genadendal, 
or Vale of Grace. 

It was Sunday morning when we approached the village ; 
and the voice of sacred songs was ascending from the rustic 
chapel, in the midst of its venerable grove of oaks, hanno- 
nising finely with the quiet sabbath -like seclusion of that 
beautiful spot. We sat down under a tree near the door of 
the chapel, and enjoyed the sweet repose of the scene, till the 
service was concluded. We were then welcomed by the good 
missionaries with their characteristic courtesy, and spent 
the rest of the day most pleasantly among them and their 
Hottentot disciples. 

We left Genadendal the following morning; but had not 
proceeded above seven or eight miles, when I met with an 
accident which effectually interrupted my journey. My hone 



EETURN TO CAPE TOWN. 21S 

being bit, or snapt at, by an ill-mannered cnr, in passing a 
boor's place, gave a sadden spring to one side, by which I was 
thrown violently from my saddle to the ground, and had one of 
my thigh bones fractured*. There was no alternative but 
to be carried back to Genadendal, which I was fortunately 
still so near, and where I was certain of experiencing every 
kind attention in the power of the benevolent brethren to 
bestow. And it is with feelings of pleasing remembrance I add 
that my anticipations were in that respect most fully realized. 
The kindness of all^ and especially of the Rev. Mr. Hallbeck 
the superintendent, during my inevitable detention there» 
deserves my most grateful commemoration. 

I returned to Cape Town early in December, and spent that 
and the following month in winding up my concerns there* 



* Owing to my lameness from a hurt received in childhood, I may, perhaps, 
be considered peculiarly liahle to such accidents as the one here mentioned. 
Nevertheless, though I yraa almost daily on horseback during my residence in 
South Africa, and frequently made long journeys in that mode, I never met 
idth any other serious acddent of this sort, except once at Glen^^Lynden, when 
I had another bone broken. An inconvenience of the country of more general 
application is the difficulty, in remote situatious, of procuring surgical or 
medicsd assistance. The remarkable salubrity of the climate, in which con<» 
tagious diseases are almost unknown, renders the latter, perhaps, of inferior 
importance ; but my own experience may serve to show how awkwai'dly many 
<»f the inhabitants are situated in ^regard to surgical aid on sudden emergencies. 
On the other occasion referred to, I dispatched a messenger to Roodewal, distant 
forty miles, for the military surgeon, there being at that time no other medical 
gentleman within more than 100 miles. But when my messenger reached the 
Great Fish River, he found it in a furious flood ; and as there is not a bridge 
from its source to the sea, there was no alternative but to wait a few days till it 
became fordable. On the present occasion the case was different — ^but not 
better. There was a surgeon resident at a country town about thirty miles 
distant. But when my messenger arrived he was lying drunk — ^had been drunk 
lor ten days — and was expected to be drunk for ten days to come. Not 
choosing to trust my limbs in the hands of such a sot, I wrote next to Cape 
Town for a surgeon : but before my medical friend there could leave his other 
patients and get out to me, more than a fortnight had elapsed ; and by that 
time I had no longer need of his aid, for with the help of good brother Stem, 
one of the missionaries, I had managed to get the fracture reduced — the 
inflammation had abated->-and all was doing welL 

I was detained at Genadendal nearly two months by this accident ; but my 
wife came out from Cape Town to me, and brought with her a few of my 
favourite books, so that the time passed away swiftly and pleasantly. The 
repose and seclusion we here enjoyed were peculiarly delightful after the 
barasaing turmoil to which we had been recently subjected. 



u 



216 STATE OF AFFAIRS. 



After selling ofif my furniture, together with a stock of articles 
purchased for our academy, and a large quantity of prmting 
paper (which had heen ordered for our magazine, and had 
unluckily arrived after its discontinuance), I had the mortifica* 
tion to find that the state of affairs was even worse than I had 
feared. We had commenced our establishment on borrowed 
capital ; the expenses of furnishing a large high-rented house, 
and keeping six or seven servants, had been very heavy; 
while, on the other hand, our period of prosperity had been 
far too brief to compensate for the preliminary outlay ; and 
great loss was necessarily sustained in disposing of articles 
for many of which there was scarcely to be found a purchaser. 
The upshot was, that I found myself overwhelmed with debts 
to an amount quite ruinous and appalling in my then situation, 
as I had no means left even for the temporary support of tnj 
family. To think of proceeding to England in such circum- 
stances was out of the question, since my prospects there were 
altogether precarious. I determined, therefore, to retire to my 
< location ' at Glen-Lynden, where I had still a portion of 
land and a few sheep and cattle, and where I could find means 
to subsist in the midst of my relatives, at little or no expense^ 
for a short period — and there wait for better times. To raise 
funds for the journey, I sold off the only property I parted 
with reluctantly — my books. I then sat down and drew up 
a statement of my case to Earl Bathurst, complaining of the 
persecution I had endured, and soliciting redress and compen- 
sation for my losses. Of this memorial I left a copy in the 
hands of the Commissioners of Inquiry, — ^to whom I had 
previously transmitted the details of the principal transactions 
mentioned in the preceding chapter. 

My friend Fairbairn, being a single man, was not so deeply 
involved as I was in pecuniary losses. Nevertheless, he also 
suffered severely ; and his health, at this period, was long in a 
most precarious and dangerous state. He declined, however, 
a share of my ' lodge in the lone wilderness ;* resolving to 
remain in Cape Town, and continue to support himself 



-«*• 



STATE OF AFFAIRS. 217 

\>y teachings so long as a few pupils remained ; and, if that 
resource &iled« to trust to Providence for some other means 
of subsistence till ^ better times ' should come. And thus 
we parted— ruined in circumstances, indeed, but sound in 
conscience and character—-*^ cast down, but not in despair/ 

The < personal narrative' of my second residence and travels 
on the eastern frontier, must be compressed into a narrow 
space. On the 11th of February we embarked in a coaster 
for Algoa Bay. We found Port-Elizabeth, of which we had 
assisted to lay the foundation in 1820, now a considerable and 
rapidly increasing town. We stayed about a week at Bethel- 
dorp, in order to enable me to examine thoroughly the system 
and progress of missionary instruction there ; and I was, 
indeed, most agreeably surprised by the amazing improvement 
which had taken place in the condition of the inhabitants since 
the time of my former visit. 

At Uitenhage, where we also spent a few days, with our 
friend, the Rev. A. Smith, clergyman of the district, I was 
informed by that upright and excellent man, that an attempt 
made by him and a few intelligent inhabitants to establish a 
society for 'promoting Religious and General Instruction 
throughout the district,' had been arbitrarily quashed by the 
Government, about the same period that our Literary Society 
was suppressed at Cape Town. He and his coadjutors had 
submitted in silence, and were waiting, like many other good 
men throughout the colony^ in uncomplaining patient endur- 
ance, for the result of the Commissioners' investigations. 

Resuming our former mode of travelling in the ox-wagon, 
we proceeded by the romantic Moravian settlement of Enon 
(described in my sixth chapter), and by the Methodist village 
of Salem on the Assagai River, to the Missionary station of 
Theopolis, where I spent a couple of days to examine the state 
of that institution. Then, journeying at a leisure pace through 
the English locations, we visited in succession the farm-cottages 
of Mrs. Campbell, Mr. Philipps, Mr. Dunn, and Lieutenant 
GilfiUan, along the coast, near the mouth of the Kowie River ; 



218 SECOND JOURNEY TO FROl^TIER. 

all situated in a most charming countiy, so gracefully disposed 
and nchlj ornamented by the hand of Nature, that the sceneiy 
has been frequently described, and with great justice, as 
bearing a striking resemblance to a nobleman's park in Eng- 
land, only on a &r more yast and magnificent scale. 

It was a curious circumstance, that in crossing the mouth 
of the Kowie River in a ferry-boat, we were rowed by two 
Scotchmen, who turned out, on inquiry, to be part of those 
who had suryiyed the destruction of the unfortunate Abeona 
transport, and these two were the only individuals of all the 
party who had afterwards persevered in finding their way to 
South Africa. 

Leaving our friends on the coast, we proceeded through a 
number of the other locations, with whose inhabitants we 
had no personal acquaintance. We found many of them very 
squalid in appearance, and ill-dressed, although, since the 
distribution of a relief fund, which I shall presently notice, 
none were absolutely without the means of subsistence. With 
the exception of a few half-pay officers, and other families who 
possessed some independent income, scarcely one of the higher 
class of emigrants had escaped the pressure of severe distress 
and privation ; and the wretched condition of most of their 
dwellings at this period, showed that even their hopes of 
renovated prosperity had been nearly extinguished. 

After a visit to the late Major Pigot, at whose hospitable 
mansion we met also with our countrymen Captain Campbell 
and Lieutenants D. and J. Moodie, Messrs. Carlisle, and other 
intelligent heads of parties, we proceeded to Graham's Town, 
which we reached on the 20th of March. 

My journey through Albany, on the present occasion, had 
been chiefly for the purpose of collecting authentic materials 
for an account of the British settlement, intended for a volume 
which I had then in contemplation. But I afterwards aban- 
doned, or at least postponed this design, and furnished my 
friend, Mr. George Thompson, with most of my notes for 
his work. After the multifarious details that have been 



STATE OF SETTLERS IN ALBANY. 219 

published on this subject by Mr. Bird*, Mr. Thompson f, and 
more recently by Mr. Kay j:, I shall restrict my observations 
to a brief space, and chiefly to points which these writers have 
omitted to notice. 

The scheme of settling a British population on the eastern 
frontier of the colony was a wise and statesman-like measure, 
as its results, after fourteen years' experience, have most 
decidedly proved. But the details of the plan were in some 
points not very judiciously devised, nor well suited to the 
nature of the soil and climate. A large proportion of the 
emigrants were, moreover, but little prepared by previous 
habits, physical or moral, for the occupation of a new country ; 
and the seeds of disunion had been profusely sown, even on 
the passage out, in most of the ill-assorted parties in which 
large numbers had been associated, and which were in many 
cases composed of the most heterogeneous materials. These 
circumstances alone could scarcely have fisdled to produce a 
great deal of dissatisfaction and disappointment. But when to 
these were added the almost total destruction for five or six 
successive years of their wheat crops by blight ; the calamitous 
visitation of a terrible deluge of rain in October, 1823, which 
swept away nearly half their huts and gardens; and, more 
gaUing than all, the cruel neglect and insolent tyranny of the 
Colonial Government and its local functionaries, ever since the 
departure of Sir Rufane Donkin, in 1821 ; it is not surprising 
that a large proportion of the settlers, — those especially who 
had sunk all their resources in the enterprise, — should have 
been driven almost to despair, or that their appeals to the 
Home Government were loud and importunate. 

Such was the situation of the Albany settlers when his 
Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry arrived at Graham's Town, 



* See his ** State of the Cape in 1822,** and especially the judicious note on 
the Settlers hj the editor, Mr. Colehrooke. 

t Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa, vol. ii. p. 146. 
X Travels and Researches in Caffiraria, p. 429. 

l2 



220 CALAMITIES AND PRIVATIONS; 

in Febraary, 1824. They were instantly deluged, as may be. 
imagined, by complaints of a very multifarious description, 
many of which were probably beyond the power of the most 
beneficent government to relieve. But passing over the 
natural defects of the soil and climate, the real and remediable 
grievances of the settlers were sufficiently formidable ; and of 
these by far the most intolerable were entirely owing to out* 
rageous and obstinate misgovemment* It is not possible, in 
the present publication, to enter deeply into details ; but the 
character of the system may be sufficiently illustrated by 
stating a few well-known and incontrovertible &ct8. In the 
violence of his resentment against Sir Rufane Donkin, Lord 
Charles Somerset, immediately on his return to the colony, 
overturned at once, and without listening to any remonstrance, 
many of Sir Rufane*s best measures for the benefit and security 
of the settlement. A popular and courteous magistrate (Major 
Jones) was displaced, and a person appointed landdrost in his 
stead, whose only concern was to please his patron, without 
even the show of any regard for the interests or the feelings 
of the inhabitants; while those who were on the list of 
< obnoxious' persons were treated with deliberate and system- 
atic insult*. The village of Bathurst was ruined. The 
settlement of Fredericksburg was thrown defenceless, and 
obb'ged to be abandoned by the half- pay officers, who had 
been placed there as an advanced post to cover the Zureveld f . 
All commercial intercourse with the Cafifers was forbidden 



* '•'• As prompt exertions were required to relieve the settlers firom tbe most 
pressing disabilities, arising firom the inadequacy of the lands i^ the first instance 
assigned to them, it was unfortunate that the important and multifarious duties 
of landdrost of the district were entrusted by Lorid Charlee Somerset to a penon 
who neglected the interests of the settlers, and who aggravated the feelings of 
the Governor by attributing the dissatisfaction that undoubtedly did from Hob 
cause prevail to a spirit of turbulence and disaffection to the Government**— 
Report ofCommrs. of Inquiry, in Pari. Papers for 1927^ iVo. 37), p. 91. 

i* " The final abandonment of this station was the immediate consequence of 
withdrawing the military guard." — " If the settlement had been encouraged by 
Lord Charles Somerset, we do not doubt that it would have succeeded."" 
Report of Commissioners^ ibid* 



TREATMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. 221 

under most severe penalties. The necessary enlargement of 
the locations was refused, whilst lavish grants of land were at 
the same time given to numbers of the frontier boors of the 
very worst class. Some of the principal heads of parties (among 
whom were Major Pigot, Captain Campbell, Mr. Philipps, Mr. 
Moodie, and other most intelligent and respectable men), having 
proposed to * consult together upon the most advisable mode 
of making the Governor acquainted with the peculiarities of 
their situation*,' and having given respectful intimation of 
such intention to the landdrost, were put down by a most 
insulting proclamation, which not only prohibited any such 
meeting as ' a high misdemeanour,' subject to arrest and 
prosecution, but stigmatised those who had promoted it with 
the most unmerited and cruel imputations f. To leave no 
doubt of the personal feelings which dictated those proceedings, 
the Rev. Mr. Geary, the English clergyman of the district, 
was furnished with a private list, in the Governor's own 
writing, of < obnoxious individuals,' with whom he was cau- 
tioned to have no intercourse whatever; and among these 
< marked' persons were Major Pigot, Captain Campbell, and 
others, as loyal, accomplished, and high-spirited men as could 
be found in the colony — their British spirit of independence, in 
fact, which refused to truckle abjectly to despotic power^ was 
their real offence. This list afterwards fell by a singular 
chance into the hands of the very persons stigmatised in it, 
and, as may be imagined, did not tend to soothe their exas- 
perated feelings {. 



* See Memorial of the Albany Settlers to Earl Bathurst, dated March 10, 
1823.— For/. Papers for 1827, No. 444, p. 11. 

•f This proclamation may be seen in the work entitled *^ State of the Cape in 
1822," p. 236. 

X It is liighly to the credit of tbe Home Government that these persecuted 
and meritorious gentlemen had not only their grievances as settlers fully 
redressed, but several of them, under Sir George Murray's administration, 
were promoted to public office in the colony. Captain Campbell was appointed 
Civil Commissioner of Albany ; Major Pigot (now deceased) was made Protector 
of Slaves ; Lieutenant D. Moodie, Resident Magistrate ; Mr. Philipps, a Justice 
of tbe Peace, &c. 



2'22 SUBSCRIPTION FOR THEIR R£LI£^. * 

The Special Report of bis Majesty's Commissioners of 
Inquiry on the state of the settlers (dated May 25, 1825) has 
nol been printed, but their general sentiments may be pretty 
correctly inferred from the tenor of the report above referred 
to, in which certain points of the policy of the local govern- 
ment are briefly animadverted on. 

Meanwhile great sympathy had been excited in Cape Town 
and throughout the colony, by the accounts received of the 
extreme distress to which a large portion of the settlers, and 
especially those who * bad seen better days^' were reduced. 
The labourers and mechanics in general had found adequate 
employment at the government buildings, and about tb« &• 
trict towns ; but the great majority of the upper aad middle 
classes were now in a state of utter destitii^on, many even 
without sufficient food or decent clothing. A society for their 
relief had been established in Cape Town some time previously, 
which was liberally supported by the inhabitants, and parti- 
cularly by the visiters from India. In 1824, a strong appeal 
was made by this association to the British public, and to their 
countrymen in India, in behalf of the suffering emigrants *, and 
the claim was responded to with that promptitude and liberality 
which Englishmen have never failed to evince when their 
generous sympathies are called forth for worthy oljects. 
About 7,000^. was remitted from India and England, inde* 
pendently of about 3,000^. collected in the colony. This 
fund was placed in the hands of a sub-committee in Albanyf 
to be distributed among the settlers, according to a scheme 
very judiciously framed from data carefully collected on the 
spot 



* Being myself at tliat time (1823-4) offidating as acting secretary of this 
(tociety, in the absence of my friend Mr. Ratberfoord, I drew up a statement, 
entitled *■ Some Account of tbe Present State of the English Settlers in Albaoy, 
South Africa,* and transmitted it to be published in London, as a pamphlet, to 
{H'omote the subscription. It is due to my own &mily and relatives to add, 
that none of them either applied for or consented to receive any share of this 
relief fund. Through the blessing of Providence on their exertions, they were 
not driven, as were some who had moved in a superior sphere, to that melanchol}' 
necessity. 



THEIR PROGRESSIVE ADVANCEMENT. 223 

' This liberal and timely fund of relief was distributed among 
the settlers in January^ 1825 ; and about the same period a 
most beneficial, though tardy and reluctant, change took place 
in the policy of the Colonial Government. So singular and 
sudden, indeed, was this change^ that it can only be accounted 
for on the supposition that the Governor had either received 
imperative orders from the Home Government to alter his 
ruinous policy in respect to Albany, or, that the remonstrances 
is his Majesty*s Commissioners had at length opened his eyes 
to the pit which he was thus digging for his own destruction. 
In February, 1825, Lord Charles Somerset and Sir Richard 
Flasket, the new Colonial Secretary, visited the eastern 
districts, and made a circuit through the locations of the 
settlers ; and, for the first time since his return to the colony, 
the Governor seemed to evince a disposition to * extend his 
j&vour' to this unfortunate settlement. On this occasion 
various grievances were redressed ; claims for additional lands 
were considered, and in many instances allowed; loans to a 
considerable amount were issued to many ; the full rights and 
title-deeds of the locations were made over to the different 
parties ; an officer of high reputation for talents and integrity 
was appointed landdrost of Albany ; some of the settlers, most 
distinguished for ability and independence, were solicited to 
accept appointments in the local magistracy ; and every thing, 
in short, was done to retrieve the settlement, and to soothe 
and conciliate the feelings of the people, soured by suffering, 
and exasperated by neglect. 

Such was the posture of affairs in Albany, at the time of my 
visit in March, 1825. The distribution of the subscription 
fund, which took place at a most critical period, had restored 
comfort, credit, and confidence to a numerous and respectable 
class of people, who were depressed and degraded by debt and 
destitution ; and the other favourable circumstances enumerated 
conspired to renew the spirit of industry and enterprise, which 
had almost given place to despair. 

The settlement being thus placed in a more natural position, 



224 THEIR PROGRESSIVE ADVAMCEMENT. 

and the chief obstacles to its prosperity removed, a new and 
brighter era commenced; and, notwithstanding the partial 
continuance of blight in the wheat crops for several years 
longer*, the district has ever since continued to adranee 
steadily, and with accelerating strides, in the march of im- 
provement. The luxuriant pastures of the Ziireveld Praper, 
being from their acidulent quality generally unfit for sheep, 
have been gradually covered with numerous herds of homed 
cattle. Within a certain distance of the coast, wheat, barley, 
and maize, are now successfully cultivated without irrigation ; 
and most of the European fruits, with potatoes, pumpkins, and 
other esculents, are raised in great abundance, and of excellent 
quality. But what is of far more importance for the prosperity 
of the settlement, it has been found that fine wool can be 
produced on the more inland pastures of the district, of. a 
quality fully equal to the best Spanish or Australian. At the 
period of my last visit in 1826, Lieut. Daniel, Major Pigot, 
Major Dundas, the new Landdrost, Capt. Campbell, and one or 
two other enterprising individuals, were raising experimental 
flocks of merinos, which were just beginning to excite some 
attention among their neighbours, but which the older Dutch* 
African colonists then generally regarded with apathy or deri- 
sion. Now, in 1834, there are about 12,000 fine-woolled sheep 
in Albany, the owners of which are realising large profits ; inso- 
much that the attention of the whole colony has been at length 
vividly awakened to the high importance of this branch of hus- 
bandry, which promises to prove a mine of inexhaustible wealth 
for South Africa. 

During the same period, the commercial affairs of the district 
have progressed beyond expectation ; and the internal trade with 
the Caifer and other native tribes, which has been created almost 
entirelysince the arrival of the British settlers, is becoming 



* It is curious that Chili, 'which lies mostly in the same latitude as the Cape, 
was visited about the same period by a similar disease in the wheat, which for 
several successive seasons ravaged the crops of that country. — See Mier^s Travels 
in Chili ; also Thompson's Travels, vol. ii. p. 76. 



PROSPEROUS CONDITION. 225 

^very day more extensive and important* Graham's Town, the 
capital of the district, which in 1820 was a mere military post, 
is now a thriving and hustling country town, with about 3500 
inhabitants, chiefly English. Besides the established church 
^English), it boasts three chapels for protestant dissenters 
(Independent, Wesleyan, and Baptist), a free-school for youth 
(^ both sexes, and an in&nt school, supported by voluntary 
subscription. It also now possesses two subscription libraries, 
agricultural, missionary, and temperance societies, a savings' 
bank, and a weekly newspaper. 

<< The attention given to education in this district," says the 
* South African Almanac for 1833,' '< reflects the highest credit 
on the inhabitants in general, and may be considered a sure 
earnest of its ultimate prosperity. The number of children 
under instruction in Albany, at a moderate computation, cannot 
be less than 1,400, which gives the ratio of nearly one to every 
seven of the entire population." 

I shall conclude this brief notice of the Settlement, with the 
following extracts from the respectable publication just quoted : 
— " The climate of Albany is temperate and salubrious, and 
may be pronounced highly congenial to a European constitu- 
tion, and eminently restorative to such as have been impaired 
by the enervating effects of a tropical sun. The cold is never 
severe, the thermometer in the depth of winter being seldom 
below the freezing point, while the heat of summer is rarely 
oppressive." 

" On a full and impartial review of the present state of this 
district, it may now be confidently stated, that the intentions of 
the British Government in forming the Settlement have at 
length been crowned with complete success. Not only do 
innumerable dwellings and inclosures present themselves in 
every part of the district, but many works of public utility have 
also been completed. 

" Many of the inhabitants have established themselves com- 
fortably and respectably, and can look around them on an active 
and enterprising race of young persons, rising into life with a 

L 3 



226 PROSPEROUS CONDITION. 

hit prospect of future usefulness. Many have attained a degree 
of opulence at which they never could have expected to arrive 
in Europe, where they must have shared in the privations of 
the middle classes of a redundant population ; and none, except 
in a few peculiar cases, have any reason to complain of the 
land of their adoption." 



227 



CHAPTER XII. 

Return to GlenrLynden — Swarms of Locusts — Excursion to 
GrcLaf'Reinity and Conference there — Colonial Slavery — 
Bechuana Refugees — The Ficani Marauders — Banditti 
of the Neutral Ground — Notices of the Bushmen^ and of 
the harharous Policy pursued towards them in past and 
present Times, 

After spending about a month with our friends in Graham's 
Town and its vicinity, we proceeded to Glen-Lynden, where 
we had the satisfaction of £jiding our relatives in much more 
prosperous circumstances, as husbandmen, than any party of 
settlers that we had seen in Albany. In spite of occasional 
ravages from rust and locust, they had saved abundance of 
wheat for their own consumption, and had some to spare for the 
market. Their flocks and herds also had continued to thrive 
and increase. Some of them were now lodged in very comfort- 
able dwellings ; my brother at Eildon had erected a commodious 
farm-cottage of stone and brick, with a chimney in the chief 
apartment — being the first chimney that had yet been built in 
the sub-district or field-cornetcy. My old bee-hive cabin, which 
was still in good repair, had been transformed into a kitchen. 

In July I met, by appointment, with Dr. Philip, at Somerset, 
and proceeded to Graaf-Reinet with him and Mr. Read, the 
the friend and fellow-labourer of Vanderkemp. Dr. Philip was 
then upon a tour of visitation to the various missionary institu- 
tions under his superintendence, and was proceeding to Griqua 
Town and other stations beyond the northern frontier. As 
Graaf-Reinet was upon his route, and I had long promised a 
visit to the landdrost. Captain Stockenstrom, I embraced the 
opportunity to accompany Dr. Philip to that place ; one of my 
chief objects being to bring these two meritorious and remark- 
able men, who had previously been not a little jealous of each 



228 COLONIAL SLAVERY. 

other 8 views in regard to the native tribes, to a better mutaal 
understanding. This purpose I had the satis&ction of seeing 
happily accomplished. Dr. Philip accepted an invitation irom 
Captain Stockenstrom to spend a week in his house with as, 
during which the present unhappy condition of the aborigines, 
and various schemes for their protection and improvement, 
were daily discussed, — until the landdrost and the missionary 
found that their views really coincided on all material points, 
and only differed on minor details. They parted with feelings 
of mutual respect and good-will ; and it will be seen in the 
sequel how zealously both have ever since striven, in their 
respective spheres, and with a noble rivalship^ for the elevation 
of the African race to the rank of freemen and fellow-christians. 

The Rev. William Wright, a clergyman in the service of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 
and a zealous advocate for the oppressed natives, happened also 
to be a guest at Landdrost Stockenstrom*s at the same period, 
—being then on his return from an exploratory tour through 
the missions in Cafferland ; and the information furnished by 
the acute observation of this gentleman, and by the missionary 
Brownlee, who had recently visited me at Glen-Lynden, sup- 
plied topics for much conversation in regard to measures for 
promoting the civilisation of the Caffer tribes. On this occa- 
sion, likewise, I obtained from Captain Stockenstrom some 
interesting details relative to the recent history of the frontier 
Caffers, and especially the surrender of the chief Makanna, 
which will be found in an ensuing chapter. 

The subject of slavery in the colony, and the discussion of 
measures for its extinction, also occupied much of our attention 
at this friendly conference. Our host, though a hereditary 
slave-holder, and perhaps not altogether free from some of the 
jealous feelings of his class towards the Abolitionists, was never- 
theless most deeply sensible of the evils of Slavery, and of its 
degrading influence alike on the master and the bondman ; and, 
as he afterwards practically proved, was most sincerely anxious 
to promote measures for its extinction. I had also become 



BECHUAXA REFUGEES. 229 

personally acquainted with the state of the slaves during my 
residence in Cape Town, where most of my household servants 
were of that class, engaged on hire from their owners ; and I had 
long been convinced, from sad observation, of the utter fallacy 
of the allegation, then so constantly heard both in the colony 
and in England, that slavery at the Cape was * so mild as to be 
almost nominal.' I had seen it, on the contrary, continually 
overflowing with misery, cruelty, and debasement. But having 
long ago stated elsewhere my opinions and experience on this 
subject*, I need not here repeat the humiliating and revolting 
narrative, especially as, through the blessing of a beneficent 
Providence, a very short period will finally expunge that foul 
blot from the Cape colony in common with every other depen* 
dency of the British empire* I shall content myself with merely 
mentioning one single illustration of the system which fell under 
our notice at this very time and place. 

As Dr. Philip and I were walking one day in the street of 
the village, just in front of the landdrost's house, my friend 
was accosted by name by a man of the Malay race. On Dr. P. 
inquiring how he came to know him, the man replied tbat he 
had occasionally seen him at the house of his former master in 
Cape Town. He then, of his own accord, told us the foUov^ing 
distressing story. He was a slave, and had a wife and several 
children also in slavery. Being an expert wagon-driver, his 
master was offered a high price for him by a person from 
Graaf-Reinet, who happened to be at Cape Town. The offer 
was accepted, but the agreement concealed from the object of 
it. He was ordered to proceed with the wagon of his new 



• An article on the State of Slavery at the Cape, which I wrote in January, 
1826, and transmitted to my friend, Mr. T. Campbell, for the New Monthly 
Magazine, appeared in that journal in October following; and, by a remarkable 
train of circumstances, led to my subsequent acquaintance with Mr. Buxton and 
Mr. Z. Macaulay, and eventually to my becoming Secretary to the Anti-Slavery 
Society. The article referred to was afterwards republished in the Anti-Slavery 
Reporter (No. XX. vol. i. p. 289) . Another article, of which Dr. Philip con- 
tributed by far the most valuable portion, may be seen in the same work. vol. ii. 
p. 161. Dr. Wright has published a comprehensive treatise on the same subject, 
entitled ** Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope.* Longman, 1831* 



230 THE FICANI MARAUDERS. 

purchaser into the interior, but given to understand that it 
was on his old master^s business, and that he should return in 
« few months. On arriving at Graaf-Rein6t, however, he was 
made acquainted with the transaction, and then found that he 
was for ever separated from all he cherished on earth, Even 
some little property in money and clothes, which he had 
hoarded and left behind, he had never been able to recover, 
although two or three years had elapsed, and he had made 
repeated applications for it. The poor man appeared extremely 
dejected, and his melancholy tale was afterwards fully confirmed 
to us on other and undoubted authority. 

But such occurrences as this were, at no remote period, of 
almost every day occun*ence, and sink into insignificance when 
compared with the revolting cases which stain the judicial 
records of that colony, even within the last few years, — such, 
for instance, as the atrocities of Laubscher and Le Reox 
(detailed by Dr. Wright), of the Bosches, tried at Graham's 
Town in 1833, and many others of a like description. Truly, 
as poor Gebhardt, the son of a Cape clergyman, executed for 
slave-murder in 1822, said to Dr. Wright, as he was about to 
ascend the scaifold — '< Slavery is a bad system: it is even 
worse for the masters than it is for the slaves I " Thank God I 
it will soon be only the name of a curse and an abomination 
that has passed away I 

About the time of our visit to Graaf-Reinet (where Mrs. P. 
and I remained about a month on this occasion), several hundred 
natives belonging to various tribes of Bechuanas, were driven 
into the colony from the north-east, mostly in a state of utter 
starvation. These refugees had been forced from their homes, 
partly by the ravages of the wandering hordes called Mantatees 
and Ficani, described in Mr. Thompson's work, and partly by 
the predatory expeditions of certain bands of banditti, of mixed 
colonial and African lineage, who had recently fixed themselves 
in the fastnesses of the Stormberg mountains, and had from 
that circumstance obtained the name of Bergeneers (mountain- 
eers). These latter miscreants had been, as it afterwards 



THX FICANI MARAUDERS. 231 

appeared, constantly aided and encouraged, in their maranding 
incursions, by unprincipled white colonists, who clandestinely 
supplied them with arms and ammunition in exchange for the 
cattle, and in some cases for the children and females of the 
slaughtered tribes *. 

In order to prevent the unfortunate refugees from being 
reduced to a state of absolute and unconditional slavery, they 
were, by a mandate of the government, ordered to be brought 
into the district towns of GraafT-Reinet and Somerset, and 
were there apprenticed out, upon certain conditions as to good 
treatment, among such of the colonists as did not possess 
slaves. Several families of them were sent to our location, 
where I believe they still reside, and who proved very faithful 
servants. Many others of them fell under my personal obser- 
vation ; and one, a poor orphan boy of about nine or ten years 
of age, came to be placed, by a singular accident, under my 
own protection, and afterwards accompanied me to England. 
They were all of the Bechuana, or great Cafifer family, and 
some of them were very handsome. One man of the Tamaha 
tribe was, I think, the finest specimen of the human figure 
I ever beheld in any country — fully six feet in height and 
graceful as an Apollo. A female of the same party, the wife 
of a chief or captain, was also a beautiful creature, with features 
of the most handsome and delicate European mould. 

We had been placed in no little alarm by the rumoured 
approach of the wandering Ficani horde towards the Winter- 
berg frontier soon after my arrival at Glen-Lynden in April ; 
and in order to ascertain what foundation there was for these 
reports, Mr. George Rennie had proceeded with a party of 
Mulattoes into the Amatembu (or Tambooki) country beyond 
the Zwart-Kei river. Here they met with two friendly chiefs 
of the Amatembu tribe, Powana and T'Quassa, who informed 
them that their nation had been defeated some little time 
previously by the Ficani, near the mountain Hanglip, only 



» See PhiHp's Researches, vol. ii. pp. 81, 291. 



2312 THE PICANI MARAUDERS. 

about eight hours' ride from the frontier of the colony ; and, 
in confirmation of this statement, they pointed to many of 
their followers who had been severely mangled in the conflict, 
and whose wounds were not yet healed. Being quite unable 
to withstand such formidable invaders, these chiefs said that 
they and their people intended to fly for refuge into the colony, 
should they again advance westward. 

This information having been confirmed by intelligence 
conveyed to us by our friend Mr. Brownlee from Cafferland, we 
became apprehensive that our little settlement might be suddenly 
overwhelmed by an irruption of this moving host of 20,000 
barbarians. I therefore transmitted a statement of the facts to 
Mr. Mackay, landdrost of the new district of Somerset, in 
which Glen-Lynden was now included, and to Major Forb^ 
acting commandant on the frontier, soliciting firom these 
officers such protection for our settlement as might be con- 
sidered needful. Major Forbes, who had obtained intelligence 
of the threatening attitude of the Ficani through a different 
channel, immediately sent up a small party of the Cape Corps 
cavalry, to cover our location, and speedily followed himself to 
inspect the situation of affairs. On account of this prompt 
attention to the security of our part of the frontier, Major 
Forbes received a severe reprimand from the Governor; and 
the patrol party was ordered to he instantly withdrawn, for no 
other reason, apparently (indeed avowedli/)^ than because he 
had acted upon information chiefly furnished by me. This 
was quite of a piece with the miserable policy that had ruined 
Fredericksburg ; but, happily for our party, the Ficani, instead 
of advancing upon the colony, turned back to the eastward, and 
were not again heard of until they were discovered, three years 
afterwards, on the Umtata river, and extirpated by an expedi- 
tion from the colony *. 

Our settlement had scarcely been relieved from the immediate 



" It is now ascertained that this wandering horde of barbarians consisted of 
two tribes of Zoolas, or north-eastern CafFers, dislodged from their native seats 
on the sources of the rivers Tutugela and Mapoota, by the ferodous caiieer of 



BANDITTI or TH£ NEUTRAL OROUND. 233 

apprehension of being overwhelmed by the ferocious Ficani^ 
when we were forced to solicit protection from oar civil autho- 
rities, from the inroads of another class of freebooters. A band 
of native l^ditti had for some time past established themselves 
among the rocks and woods of the Neutral Ground, composed 
partly of unld Bushmen from the north-east, partly of tame 
Bushmen (as they are termed), who had absconded from the 
service of the boors ; and they were rendered more dangerous 
and desperate by having been recently recruited by one or two 
runaway slaves, and by several deserters from the Cape Corps, 
who possessed fire-arms. This band of desperadoes were 
r^)orted to be under the command of a Bushman named 
Dragoener, who had formerly been in the service of our 
neighbour Diederik Muller, but who, on being flogged on 
some occasion by a kinsman of his master's, with an agter-os* 
sjamhok (a tremendous whip of rhinoceros hide), had fled to 
the desert, and sworn eternal enmity to the colonists. He had 
at length become the captain of this band of freebooters, and 
under his enterprising guidance their depredations became 
every day more extensive and formidable. From the field- 
cometcies of Glen-Lynden and the Tarka they had carried off 

the Zoola conqueror Chaka. Deprived of their country and their cattle, and 
driyen by famine to desperation, these tribes, under the guidance of a chief 
named Matnana, pursued for several years a devastating predatory warfare against 
other clans of the Caffer and Bechuana family living near the sources of the 
Umzimculu, Umzimvubu, and Gareep or Orange rivers*. At length they 
ai^pear to have taken possession of a tract of country on the Umtata river, 
about 250 miles from our frontier, on the eastern confines of the Amatembu 
territory, with the view probably of fixing themselves there permanently ; for 
they are described by an eye-witness, in 1828, as having constructed huts, 
cultivated the ground, and being actually located with their wives and children. 
In this spot they were attacked and destroyed by the British troops, in 1828, 
nnder circumstances which seem strongly to demand investigation ; for if the 
account given by the Rev. Mr. Kay, in his recent work, may be relied upon, 
this unhappy horde, who, however guilty towards others, were blameless 
towards the colony, were massacred unresistingly, without warning and without 
mercy. — See Bannister^s Humane Policy^ p. 150 ; and Kay's Researches 
in Caffraria, p. 328. 



* See MapootOf Tutugal^ Um-ximcoolianaf Um-zimvoobo, Gariep, &c., 
in Mr. J. An'owsmith's excellent new Map of the Cape of Good Hope. 



2S4 NOTICES OF THE BUSHMEN. 

a considerable number of horses, partly, perhaps, in order to 
deprive the colonists of the means of speedy pursuit, and partly 
to serve them in hunting the larger game, with which that 
tract of country then abounded. The horses, moreover, when 
worn out in huntings served them for food. Three horses, 
belonging to my brother at Eildon, were captured while I was 
residing with him, and devoured by these robbers, as was 
ascertained by a party who went in pursuit, and who found 
only their hides and hoofis. Twelve oxen were carried off 
from a boor at the Flora, and driven into a ravine of the forest, 
where the robbers, finding themselves hotly pursued, cut the 
throats of all the cattle, and escaped through the jungle. 
Cattle, calves, and sheep were stolen continually from oar 
Mulatto neighbours ; and one of them, named Groenberg, in 
attempting resistance, was dangerously wounded by poisoned 
arrows. About the same time, a boy who was tending a flock 
of sheep was carried away along with his flock, and detained 
for some days. He reported on his return that the expediency 
of killing him, in order to prevent discovery of their retreats, 
had been seriously debated by the robbers, but that their 
leader saved his life, and sent him home unharmed. A Hot- 
tentot herdsman belonging to my brother John was actually 
murdered by a party of Bushman banditti, when he first took 
possession of his lands in the Mancazana valley ; but this last 
outrage happened a considerable time subsequent to the period 
of which I am now speaking, and was probably committed by 
another band. 

These freebooters might have been able, perhaps, to make 
out a good case against the colony, had they been heard in 
their own defence. The country we now occupied had belonged 
very probably to their ancestors. Some of them had been in 
their childhood carried by the boors into servitude when their 
kindred were slaughtered, and had been themselves considered 
as slaves, and often treated like brutes. The regular slaves 
who had absconded from bondage, and the deserters who 
had fled from a military service into which they had been 



NOTICES or TRB BUSHMEN. 235 

drafted by compulsory enlistment, had all suffered wrongs 
against which the heart and soul of man naturally revolts, and 
which in fiery natures tend to awaken the thirst of vengeance. 
But however guilty the colony may have been in pursuing a 
system of injustice and oppression which had, directly or indi- 
rectly, driven most of these imhappy outlaws to their present 
mode of life, it was obvious that their predatory career could 
not be allowed to continue. Neither could the boors, some of 
whom boasted that only a few years ago they used to lie in 
wait for the Bushmen, and shoot them like baboons, be per- 
mitted to resume their old habits of murderous private retalia- 
tion. I wrote to the landdrost, urging that some plan should 
if possible be devised, combining protection to the colonists 
with mercy to the outlaws, for putting an end to this state of 
things. Commandoes of boors were then sent out after the 
usual mode, but these the outlaws contrived, to baffle or elude. 
At length they were surrounded in one of their fastnesses on 
the Koonap river by a strong party of military and burgher 
militia, and sunmioned to surrender. But their leaders, either 
having no hope of pardon, or determined rather to perish than 
return to servitude, refused to capitulate, and made a desperate 
attempt to break through the environing force. One or two, 
it is said, succeeded ; but Dragoener and most of his boldest 
comrades being slain, the rest were taken prisoners, and the 
band effectually broken up. 

Referring the reader to page 225 for another brief notice 
respecting the predatory Bushmen, by whom our settlement 
was occasionally annoyed, I shall here offer a few remarks 
respecting the general habits and treatment of this singular 
and unfortunate race of men. 

The Bushman or Bosjesmen (as they are termed by the 
Dutch colonists), appear to be the remains of Hottentot 
hordes, originally subsisting, like all the aboriginal tribes of 
Southern Africa, chiefly by rearing sheep and cattle; but 
who have been driven, either by the gradual encroachments of 
the European colonists, or by internal wars with other tribes, 



236 NOTICES OF THE BUSHMBK. 

to seek for refuge among the inaccessible rocks and deserts 
of the interior. Most of the hordes now known in the colony 
by the name of Bushmen are entirely destitute of flocks or 
herds, and subsist partly by the chase, partly on the wild 
roots of the wilderness, and, in seasons of scarcity, on reptiles, 
locusts, and the larvae of ants, or by plundering their hereditary 
foes and oppressors, the frontier boors. 

The Bushmen retain the ancient arms of the Hottentot 
race, namely, a light javelin or assagai, similar to that of the 
Caffers, and a bow and arrows. The latter, which are their 
principal weapons, both for war and the chase, are small in 
size, and formed of slight materials ; but owing to the deadly 
poison with which the arrows are embued^ and the dexterity 
with which they are launched, they are missiles truly formi* 
dable both to man and beast. One of these arrows, formed 
merely of a piece of slender reed tipped with bone or iron, is 
sufficient to destroy the most powerful animal. Nevertheless, 
although the colonists very much dread the effects of the 
Bushman's arrow, they know how to elude its range ; and it is, 
after all, but a very unequal match for the firelock, as the 
persecuted natives by sad experience have found. 

Having descended from the pastoral to the hunter state, 
the Bushmen have, with the increased perils and privations 
6f that mode of life, necessarily acquired a more ferocious 
and resolute character. From a mild, confiding, and unenter- 
prizing race of shepherds, they have been graduaUy transformed 
into wandering hordes of fierce^ suspicious, and vindictive 
savages. By their fellow men they have been treated as wild 
beasts, until they have become in some measure assimilated 
to wild beasts in habits and disposition. 

Whether any considerable hordes of these people existed in 
their present state previous to the occupation of the country 
by Europeans, seem to be doubtful ; but it is certain that 
numerous tribes, once subsisting in ease and affluence on 
the produce of their herds and flocks, have by the incessant 
encroachments of the colonists been either driven to the sterile 



KOTICES OF TBS BUSHMEK. 237 

deserts, and of necessity transformed to Bushmen, or utterly 
extirpated. This process has heen carrying on, as the authentic 
records of the Colony prove, for at least a hundred and twenty 
years. And thus on the outskirts of our eyer-adyandog 
frontier, numerous wandering hordes of destitute and desperate 
savages — the South- African ^Children of the Mist' — have 
heen constantly found in a state of precarious truce, or of 
bitter hostility, with the colonists* 

The annals of the barbarous wars that have been so long 
carried on between this race of men and the frontier boors, 
would 'fill a large volume. The works of Thunberg, Sparrman, 
Barrow, Lichtenstein, Burchell, Thompson, and of other re- 
spectable travellers, abound with these details, and Dr. Philip 
has added many more from other authentic sources. I shall 
not hjere rehearse the melancholy history, which is indeed far 
too voluminous for my limits, but in order to give the reader 
some idea of the system pursued towards this race of men, 
J subjoin a few illustrations not. before published. 

First, I shall give an anecdote of the olden times, as told 
by an actor in the bloody drama. It is the case of the Dutch 
coloni8ts,by one of themselves ; and I shall only premise that 
the letter from which I print it, (and which I have received 
within ^these few weeks,) is written by a gentleman with 
Dutch blood in his veins, himself a colonist, and warmly 
attached to the Dutch-African population — ^though au en- 
lightened friend also to the aborignal race. I withhold the 
name of my correspondent, who is a most respectable and 
trustworthy person, lest by giving it publicity I should expose 
him, as others have been exposed, to bitter colonial persecution. 

<* I was travelling," he says, " some little time ago, over the 
dreary wastes near the northern frontier, in company with 

■ , field-comet of , whom I think you have 

met with during your residence in this country, and who is 
certainly one of the most respectable inhabitants of the district, 
— ^and, withal, of a very frank and honest disposition. He was 
commenting on the measures then in progress for the establish- 



238 NOTICES OF THE BUSHMEN. 

ing a sort of cordon aanitairey in order to cut o£F all intercourse 
with those parts of the interior where the small-pox was raging 
destructively among the native tribes. I found this man very 
rational, candid, and liberal, until Dr. Philip's name happened 
to be mentioned ; upon hearing which he immediately broke 
forth into a strain of angry invective against that gentleman ; 
attributing to his exertions and representations all the recent 
< arbitrary measures ' (as he termed them) to which the 
colonists had been subjected. Knowing this to be a sore 
point, I allowed his indignation full scope to vent itself; but 
as soon as he became calm, I remarked to him that it must, 
nevertheless, be admitted that abominable cruelties had been 
committed against the natives, <Who denies that?' rejoined 

, with the same vivacity he had just displayed in 

inveighing against Dr. Philip. <God forbid that I should 
deny we have much to answer for?' 

** < I still often shudder,' he continued, < when I think of one 
of the first scenes of the kind which I was obliged to witness 
in my youth, when I commenced my burgher service. It was 
upon a commando under Carl Krotz. We had surprised and 
destroyed a considerable kraal of Bosjesmen. When the 
firing ceased, five women were still found living. The lives 
of these, after a long discussion^ it was resolved to spare, 
because one farmer wanted a servant for this purpose, and 
another for that. The unfortunate wretches were ordered to 
march in front of the commando ; but it was soon found that 
they impeded our progress — not being able to proceed &8t 
enough. They were, therefore, ordered to be shot. The 
scene which ensued often haunts me up to the present hour. 
The helpless victims, perceiving what was intended, sprung 
to us, and clung so firmly to some of the party, that it w»8 
for some time impossible ta shoot them without l?Ay^i^ing 
the lives of those they held fast. Four of them were at length 
despatched; but the fifth could by no means be torn firom one 
of our comrades, whom she had grasped in her agony; and his 
entreaties to be allowed to take the woman home were at last 



NOTICES OF TRB BUSHMEN, 239 

complied with. She went with her preserrer, serred him 
long and faithfully, and, I helieve, died in the familj.— May 
God forgave the land V 

*^ This was said with much feeling ; and a chill of horror 
held ns both silent for some minutes. I then said, < Dr. Philip 
never published any thing half so bad as this I*' — < But what 
is the nse of ripping up old sores ? ' was the rejoinder. 
^ This happened when I was a boy, and I am now old and 
grey. There are, perhaps, not ten men in the whole colony 
who would not now shrink with horror from such a proceeding. 
Where were religion or law in those days ? Moreover, there 
was at least some pretext for that slaughter. Those Bosjes- 
men had committed several murders and depredations on our 
frontier. We were living in a state of bitter feud and constant 
warfare with the natives, and both parties were intent on 
mutual extermination. But what had your Ficani done when 
they were destroyed by wholesale slaughter by your British 
commanders ? While the hoor is threatened with the prison 
and the gallows if he but fire a shot in defence of all he 
possesses in the worlds of his life, his family, his property, — 
a regular army is sent by the Government hundreds of miles 
into unknown parts, on purpose to destroy a whole tribe of 
people, of whom we never so much as heard of before, who 
never did us the slightest injury, who, against our arms, 
were utterly defenceless — and this act committed within the 
last few years, too, when one hears of nothing but humanity, 
religion, and new laws for protecting the slaves and native 
tribes I Here we had massacre in all its horrors — shooting 
of men in cold blood — the murder or mutilation of helpless 
females and children, and other atrocities too horrible too 
describe. But all this, I hear, your English missionaries 
defend* or wink at, because it was done by Englishmen in 



• This refers, I presume, to a letter by Mr. Boyce, a Wesleyan Missionary, 
inserted in the South African Advertiser, for March 13, 1833, defending the 
justice and expediency of destroying the Ficani. Mr. Kay, as we have seen. 



240 KOTICBS OF THE BUSHMEN. 

aathority, does not tell against as unfortunate Boors^— There 
is no use , he continued, < in trying to avoid the smaU-pox. 
Come into the colony it will. Rust, locusts, droughts, we 
have had already, and ten thousand plagues more may we 
expect, as punishments for the hlood which lies upon this 
knd!' 

'< Here my fellow-trareller gave his horse the whip, and 
galloped o£f in a state of high excitement, while I pondered 
over what had passed; not a little comforted, amidst these; 
melancholy recollections, by the evidence exhibited to me 
on this as on many other occasions, of the improved state of 
moral sentiment among my fellow colonists. There is, yon 
may rest assured, much good material fit to be worked upon 
even among the frontier Boors, and which, if wisely applied, 
might be rendered of essential advantage in the great structure 
of African civilization. It has indeed often been my lot to 
be thrown by accident or otherwise among Cape colonists 
in their unguarded moments, when with evident sincerity and 
contrition they have deplored the deeds of blood, both of early 
and recent times, by which the colony has been polluted, 
evincing clearly that, through the influence of religious instmc- 
tion, their ideas with regard to the treatment of the natives 
and coloured races generally are undergoing a very rapid and 
beneficial change. It is therefore a great and a mischievous 
mistake, in giving an account of the melancholy occurrences 
which the pen of truth may have to expose and censure, to 
charge the * Cape-Dutch Boors* indiscriminately with such 
deeds, or to represent them in the aggregate as monsters of 
barbarity." 

While I willingly insert these concluding remarks of my 
respectable correspondent, and am well disposed to concur 
in the opinion that the influence of religious instruction, 



takes a widely different view of this transaction from his brother Missionuy. 
But the above is merely given as the view taken of the affiair by a Dutch- 
African colonist. 



PROGRESS OF BETTER FEELINGS. 241 

combined with the high moral tone nniformlj maintained 
by the liberal part of the press in regard to the coloured 
races, has done much, within the last few years, to humanize 
the sentiments of the more respectable portion of tbe Dutch- 
African colonists ; yet we must not delude ourselves with the 
fidlacions notion that the progress of light and knowledsre 
aloney will effect either a speedy or complete change in tl>e 
state of things. Civilization and information must of necessity 
make but slow and feeble advances among a class of people 
so situated as the white back-settlers of the wild and thinly 
peopled regions on the Bushman frontier. Nor is it the 
knowledge simply of what is just and right, that will induce 
men to act justly, or wisely, or humanely. Look at the long 
and arduous struggles we have had in enlightened, humane, 
and religious England, to obtain the abolition of the abomin- 
able State of Slavery. Look at the depth of ungenerous and 
unchristian prejudice in regard to the coloured race, which 
pervades free and religious America, like a feculent moral 
fog. I do not consider the Dutch- African colonists as worse 
than other people would be and have been in similar circum- 
stances — not certainly worse than the Spaniards in America — 
not worse perhaps than the British in Australia. Moreover, 
having been myself for years resident on a frontier exposed 
to the incursions of the native tribes, and witness to the 
annoyance and damage sustained by my own relatives from 
their depredations, it can scarcely be supposed that I am 
insensible to the provocations often received by the colonists, 
or altogether without sympathy for their situation. But on 
that very account I am the more deeply impressed with tbe 
conviction of their unfitness to be the judges or the avengers 
of their own wrongs. Were they the most humane and 
enlightened people in the world, they could not safely be 
trusted with such perilous powers. Without strong legal 
restraints^ such, alas I is human nature on the large scale, 
that mere humanity will always be too feeble for passioi^ 
and selfishness. 

M 



242 COMMANDO EXPLOITS. 

Bat let us reyert once more to facts. Nor need we recal the 
barbarous acts of ancient times : let us look merely at the legal- 
ised butcheries of the Bushman race, which were incessantly 
going on while I was mys^ in the colony^ and of which onlj 
a small portion has been recorded in the works of Thompson 
and Philip. I well recollect of the field-commandant Van Wyk, 
generally considered one of the most respectable men in the 
Cradock district, halting at my cabin in 1821, asheretumed with 
his commando of boors from an expedition against some hordes 
of Bushmen on the Bamboosberg, who had committed depre- 
dations in the Tarka. He and his men, as I was then tc^d, had 
slain upwards of eighty souls, and had taken captive a consider- 
able number of women and children, — some of whom I afterwards 
saw at the residence of our neighbour Wentzel Coetzer, in the 
service of one of his sons who had been on the expedition. It 
was an expedition ordered by the Government to repress the 
aggressions of the Bushmen ; and this was the regular mode in 
which these affairs were managed. The kraal was surprised, 
the males consigned to indiscriminate slaughter, and such of the 
women and children as survived the massacre were carried into 
captivity. Scores of such expeditions have taken place since, 
and the system continues to this very hour but little, I fear, if 
at all abated in its enormities. Nay more, atrocities still less 
excusable, because altogether wanton and unprovoked, are even 
now perpetrated with impunity. The following is a sample. 

In November, 1829, a commando went out against a horde 
of Bushmen near the Sack River, who were reported to have 
been guilty of some depredations. The party did not, however, 
find the horde they were in search of; but, in returning, thej 
came upon another horde who were at that time living in peace 
with the colonists, and who were not accused or suspected d 
having been guilty of any offence. This kraal they thought fit 
to surprise, and shot seven of the unsuspecting and unresisting 
people in cold blood. As the party returned from this doughtj 
exploit, a Bushwoman was observed lying near the path, 
wrapped up in her caross, apparently asleep. The commander, 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 243 

without uttering a word or asking a question, levelled his 
musket and fired. The caross heaved up— and an aged female 
in the agonies of death rolled out of it. And the party rode 
on, without considering the matter worthy even of a passing 
remark I Now, the facts of this horrid murder have heen sub- 
stantiated upon the oaths of several of the persons present, and 
the official documents, as I am assured upon authority which 
it is impossible for me to doubt, are now, or at least were very 
lately, in the possession of Mr. Oliphant the Attorney-General, 
at Cape Town. But, for reasons of which I am yet ignorant, 
no punishment whatever has been inflicted upon the persons 
implicated in these transactions. 

Without going farther into a subject which has been already 
so ably discussed and so amply illustrated by my friend Dr. 
Philip, I shall only, in conclusion, express my conviction of 
the utter futility of looking for any effectual change of system 
from any power within the colony. All that can be expected 
from the most benevolent governor (unless he were a statesman 
of an order such as our secondary dependencies are but rarely 
blest with) is the application of palliatives, which may perhaps 
mitigate the suffering, but which cannot possibly heal the sore. 
Unless, therefore, the subject is seriously taken up by the Home 
Government, and some comprehensive plan wisely devised and 
perseveringly carried into execution for the protection and civil- 
isation of the tribes that surround the colony, no other result 
can be rationally contemplated than the prolongation, for gene- 
rations yet to come, of the same revolting scenes of mutual 
wrong and barbarity. The bitter fountain will still pour forth 
its bitter waters. The frontier colonists, be they Dutch or 
British, must of necessity continue to be semi-barbarians, so 
long as the commando system — the system of hostile reprisals 
— shall be encouraged or connived at; and so long as the 
colonists are permitted to make encroachments on the territory 
and the natural rights of the natives, the colony can never 
have a safe or a settled frontier. Mutual enmity and recipro- 
cal outrage will proceed as heretofore. The weak will gradually 

M 2 



244 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

melt away before the strong ; tribe after tribe will be extir- 
pated as their brethren have been extirpated; and year after 
year, while we continue to talk of our boundless benevolence 
and our Christian philanthropy, fresh loads of that guilt which 
the Almighty has denounced in awful terms — ^the blood-stained 
guilt of OPPRESSION, will continue to accumulate upon our 
heads as a nation. 



245 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Tlie Hottentots — Progress of Colonial Encroachments — 
Reduction of the Aboriginal Ra^e to Servitude — Their 
Condition ai the close of last Centtny — TTteir Wars with 
the Boors — Oppressions and Cruelties — Colonial Redress 
-^Ca^e of Stuurman — Condition of the Hottentots during 
the Author* s Residence in the Colony — Exertions of Mr, 
Buxton and of Dr. PhUipfor their Relief-^ Emancipating 
Ordinance oj 1828 — Colonial Clamours — Account of the 
Settlement at Kai River. 

In describing the insurrection of the Boors on the eastern 
frontier in 1815, I have cursorily noticed the former condition 
of the enthralled colonial Hottentots. I shall devote this chap- 
ter to a rapid sketch of the progressive changes in the circum- 
stances of that people from the first settlement of the colony to 
the present day ; concluding with an account of the experiment 
recently made to reinstate the aborigines in the full rights of 
freemen, and to establish a h'mited number of them as small 
landholders. 

When the Dutch began to colonise the southern angle of the 
African continent, about the middle of the seventeenth century, 
they entered the country as friends, and easily obtained from 
the natives, for a few trinkets and flasks of brandy, as much 
territory as was required for their infant settlement. The native 
inhabitants, afterwards known by the name of Hottentots ^, are 
described by the best authorities as being at that period 



•" The name,'* says Mr. Barrow, "that has been given to this people is a 
fabrication. Hottentot is a word that has no place or meaning in their language ; 
and they take to themselves the name under the idea of its being a Dutch word. 
Whence it has its derivation or by whom it was first given, I have not been able 
to trace. When the country was first discovered, and when they were spread 
over the southern angle of Africa, as an independent people, each horde had its 



246 DESCRIPTION OF THE HOTTENTOTS. 

a comparatively numerous people^ Hying in pastoral ease 
and abundance on the produce of their herds and flocks. 
They were divided into many tribes, under the patriarchal 
rule of their respective chiefs or elders ; and as they did 
not, like the Gaffers, cultivate grain or esculents, their only 
steady occupation was the care of their cattle. Enjoying 
a serene and temperate climate, little clothing or shelter was 
sufficient for their wants. A mantle formed of sheep-skins, 
sewed together with threads of sinew and rendered soft and 
pliable by friction, sufficed for a garment by day and a bbrnket 
by night. A hut, framed of a few boughs or p<des covered 
with rush-mats, and adapted to be conveyed like a tent on the 
backs of their pack oxen, was a sufficient protection from the 
weather. A bow and poisoned arrows, and the light spear or 
javelin known by the name of assagai, were their only arms, 
and were used alike for war or the chase. They were then, as 
their descendants continue to be, bold and ardent huntsmen ; for 
with the formidable beasts of prey which inhabit the country 
they had to maintain incessant war&rein defence of their flocks, 
and in contending for the dominion of the desert. They had 
also, like other barbarians, their quarrels and wars with each 
other ; but these appear to have been generally conducted with 
as moderate a degree of ferocity and bloodshed as is to be found 
among any people in a similar state of society. Yet, though 
of a mild and somewhat inert disposition, they were by no 
means deficient in courage. They defeated Almeida, the 
first viceroy of the Portuguese in India, and slew him with 
seventy-four of his men, in a fierce conflict at the Salt River, 
near the spot where Cape Town now stands ; and they main- 
tained, in 1659, an obstinate though unsuccessful war with the 
Dutch colonists, in resisting the first attempts to occupy part 
of their country. 

particular name ; but that by which the coUectiye body as a nation was diitin- 
guished, and which at this moment they bear among themselves in every part 
of the country, is QuaiqiuBJ" — (Barrow^ s Travels in SouthemAfriea, yoL'u 
p. 100.) — Tachart, Dapper, and other early writers agree in the same statement 



PROGRESS OF COLONIAL ENCROACHMENTS. 247 

A portion of territory baring been ceded by treaty and peace 
re-established, the intercourse between the European settlers 
and the natives continued on an amicable footing for nearly fifty 
years ; tbe latter maintaining with singular fidelity the engage- 
ments they had entered into*. The territorial occupation 
of the country to any considerable extent, was not at first 
the object of the Dutch East-India Company, under whose 
controul the settlement was placed; and there was neither 
mineral wealth nor extraordinary fertility of soil, to tempt 
the forcible appropriation of native labour in a way similar to 
what occurred in the West Indies, Mexico, and Peru. At 
length, however, the Dutch settlers discovered that though the 
country furnished neither gold nor silver, nor any of the much 
prized tropical products, it was well adapted for the culture of 
com and wine, and for the rearing of flocks and herds almost 
without limit. Emigrants, accordingly, began to flock to South 
Africa ; and the ^ white man's stride,' with or without the no- 
minal acquiescence of the natives, was gradually extended f. 
Predatory expeditions against the more distant tribes for the 
sake of obtaining possession of their cattle, began also to be 
practised, and were incessantly renewed by the more unprin- 
cipled portion of the colonists ; the feeble government not 
daring to punish these outrages, ^' because," says a despatch of 
the Governor and Council, in 1702, " half of the colony would 
be ruined, so great is the number of the inhabitants impli- 
cated X" 

After the lapse of little more than a century, the European 
intruders had acquired possession of the greater part of the 
extensive region now embraced by the colonial boundary, 
including the entire country inhabited by the Hottentot 

•-—— ^^ ■- - 

* Kolben, vol. i. p. 58. See also Di4>per and La Croix. 

■f* The usual mode of measuring out a new farm, during the Dutch occupa- 
tion, "was for the Veld-wagUmeester of the district io stride or pace the ground ; 
and half an hour*6 walk or stride in each direction from the centre across the 
veld (country) was the regulated extent of the farms. See Barrow, vol. i. p. 29. 

X Commissioner Bigge^s Report on the Hottentot Population ; Parliamentary , 
Paper, No. 584 for 1830, p. 2, 



i4S PROGRESS OF COLONIAL ENCROACHMENTS. 

race, with the exception of the and deserts which a£Ford a 
refuge to the wandering Namacqua, Coranna, and Bushman 
hordes, and which are too sterile and desolate to excite the 
cupidity of any class of civilized men *. 

But it was not the soil of their country merely of which the 
Hottentots were deprived in the course of these encroach- 
ments. In losing the property of the soil, they also gradually 
lost the privilege of occupying even the least valuable tracts 
of it for pasturing their flocks and herds — ^their only means 
of subsistence. People without land could have no occasion 
for cattle — no means of supporting them. Their flocks and 
herds, accordingly, also passed by degrees into the possession 
of the colonists. Nothing then remained of which to plunder 
them save the property of their own persons, and of that, the 
most sacred and unalienable of all property, they were also at 
length virtually deprived. The laws enacted by the Dutch 
Home Government, it is true, did not permit the Hottentots 
to be publicly sold from owner to owner, as Negro slaves and 
other farm stock were sold in the same colony ; but, by the 
colonial laws and usages, they were actually deprived of a 
right to the free disposal of their own labour, and reduced to a 
condition of degrading, grinding, and hopeless bondage, in 
some respects even more intolerable than colonial slavery of 
the ordinary description. 

Abundant melancholy illustrations of the process by which 
this debasing change in the condition of the aboriginal race 
was accomplished, are to be found in the works of the varioas 
European travellers who traversed the interior of the colony 
during the latter portion of last century f. I shall quote, 
however, only a few sentences from Mr. Barrow, one of the 
most eminent of those travellers, the whole of whose account 
of the natives (and among other points his correction of the 
« — — ■ 

• See Thunberg, Spamnan, Vaillant, Barrow. 
'f See Thunberg, vol. i. p. 304, vol. ii. p. 155 ; Sparrman, vol. i. pp. 241, 
306, vol. ii. p. 310; Vaillant, vol. i. p. 300, vol. ii. pp. 118, 392, of Pint 
Journey. — N. B. The references are to the English translations of these works. 



•REDUCTION TO SERVITUDE. 249 

grossly exaggerated reports of their excessive filthiness, and 
deformity) is well deserving of the reader's perusal. 

After mentioning the comparative happiness and more 
numerous population of the Hottentots in their independent 
state, which in the eastern part of the colony existed so late 
as to ahout twenty years before the period of his travels 
(1798), Mr. Barrow thus proceeds. — " Some of their villages 
might have been expected to remain in this remote and not 
very populous part of the colony. Not one, however, was to 
be found. There is not, in &ct, in the whole extensive district 
of Graaff Reinet a single horde of independent Hottentots ; 
and perhaps not a score of individuals who are not actually in 
the service of the Dutch. These weak people, the most helpless, 
and in their present condition perhaps the most wretched, 
of the human race, duped out of their possessions, their 
country, and their liberty, have entailed upon their miserable 
offspring a state of existence to which that of slavery might 
bear the comparison of happiness. It is a condition, however, 
not likely to continue to a very remote posterity. Their 
numbers of late years have been rapidly on the decline. It 
has generally been observed that where Europeans have 
colonized, the less civilized nations have always dwindled away, 
and at length totally disappeared." — "There is scarcely," 
he continues, " an instance of cruelty said to have been com- 
mitted against the slaves in the West-Indian islands, that 
c6uld not find a parallel from the Dutch farmers of the remote 
districts of the colony towards the Hottentots in their service. 
Beating and cutting with thongs of the hide of the sea-cow 
(hippopotamus) or rhinoceros, are only gentle punishments; 
though these sorts of whips, which they call sjambocs, are 
most horrid instruments, being tough, pliant, and heavy 
almost as lead. Firing small shot into the legs and thighs of 
a Hottentot, is a punishment not unknown to some of the 
monsters who inhabit the neighbourhood of Camtoos River. — 
By a resolution of the old government, as unjust as it was 
inhuman, a peasant (boor) was allowed to claim as his 

M d 



250 CONDITION AT THE CLOSE OF LAST CENTURY. 

property, till the age of fiye-and-twenty, all the children of 
the Hottentots in his sendee to whom he had given in their 
infancy a morsel of meat. At the expiration of this period 
the odds are ten to one that the slave is not emancipated. 
But should he be fortunate enough to escape at the end of 
this period, the best part of his life has been spent in a 
profitless servitude, and he is turned adrift without any thing 
he can call his own, except the sheep*s-8kin on his back*." 

Mr. Barrow has been generally regarded in the colony as 
strongly prejudiced against the frontier boors, many of whom 
were violently disaffected to the English Government, and in 
a state of anarchy and insurrection at the period of his travels. 
But making every allowance for the influence of such feelings, 
there cannot be a doubt that the statement he has given of 
their treatment of the natives at that time is substantially just 
An officer of my acquaintance, who served in the interior of 
the colony at the time of Mr. Barrow's travels, and who has 
resided there ever since the second capture of the Cape, in 
the midst of the Dutch- African colonists, with whom he has 
constantly lived on the most friendly terms, furnished me, 
in 1823, with an account of the state of the Hottentots 
thirty years ago, which fully corroborates the statement of 
Mr. Barrow. I subjoin a short passage from his MS., and 
only withhold the writer's name, lest I should by its insertion 
expose him to colonial odium. 

" At that time (1798-1802) the Hottentots were a miser- 
able abject race of people ; generally living in the service of 
the boors, who had so many of them that they were thought 
of little value as servants, and were treated more like brute 
beasts than human beings. Indeed, the colonists in those 
days scarcely considered them human. They were mostly 
naked : seldom was one of them to be seen with any other 
clothing than the sheep-skin caross, together with a piece 
of jackals skin for the men, and a wretched sort of leaUiern 



• Travels in Southern Africa, vol, i. pp. 93 — 95. 



THEIR WARS AGAINST THE BOORS. 251 

apron for ike women, uttached to a girdle of raw hide, which 
encircled their loins. Their food was commonly the flesh of 
old ewes, or any animal the hoor expected to die from age. 
If he was short of that, he shot a few quaggas or other game 
for them. Their wages were generally a few strings of glass- 
heads in the year; or, when the hoor returned from a journey 
to Cape Town, a tinder-hox and knife were considered a 
reward for faithfiil services. Perhaps a very obedient man, 
and more than commonly industrious, got a heifer, or a couple 
of ewes, in a year. And if by accident any of these poor 
wretches happened to possess a few cattle, there was often 
some means fallen upon by the boor to get rid of him, and 
thus his cattle became his master's. When a Hottentot 
ofiended any boor or booress, he was immediately tied up to 
the wagon-wheel, and flogged in the most barbarous manner. 
Or if the master took a serious dislike to any of these unhappy 
creatures, it was no uncommon practice to send out the 
Hottentot on some pretended message, and then to follow 
and shoot him on the road ; and, when thus put out of the 
way, his relations durst not msJ^e any inquiry about him, 
else they also were severely punished. Such was the condition 
in which we found the natives at that period." 

It cannot be thought surprising that people thus treated, 
though naturally one of the mildest and least enterprising 
£Eunilies of the human race, should be driven by despair to 
take up arms against their oppressors. Accordingly, we find 
that about the period to which the above extracts refer, and 
while a large body of the frontier colonists were in a state of 
insurrection against the English Government, a considerable 
number of the Hottentots in the eastern districts fled into 
Cafferland, leaving their wives and children, in most cases, 
in the hands of the colonists; and having instigated some 
of the Caffer chiefs to aid them in an attack upon the colony, 
a formidable irruption took place ; the boors near the frontier 
were attacked and driven from their farms, their houses were 
burnt to the ground, and their arms and ammunition seized 



252 THEIR WARS AGAINST TBE BOORS. 

to a large extent by their former bondmen. Some white 
families were slaughtered; bat, considering the provocations 
the natives had received, their retaliation was &r from being 
bloody. The assembled boors were at length defeated at 
Camtoos River, under their ablest leader, Field-Commandant 
Vanderwalt, who was slain in the conflict ; and they were so 
much disspirited by this disaster, that they fled with their 
families in all directions, and were pursued by the victorious 
Hottentots and their Caffer allies to Kayman*s River, near 
the site of the present district town of George. Here the 
natives were met by a body of English troops, and the colonial 
militia of the Swellendam district, and driven back to the 
forests of the Zureberg and Sunday River. 

I cannot now enter into the details of those troubled times, 
which continued with little intermission until after the 
second capture of the colony by the English, in 1806. 
Suffice it to say, that the natives were partly subdued by 
force, and partly gained over amicably by the English, upon 
whom they naturally threw themselves for protection. The 
majority were induced to return to the service of their former 
masters, who in many cases still held as hostages their wives 
and children. A native regiment, which had been formed 
in 1796 or 1797, by General Craig, was greatly increased 
by the numbers who eagerly flocked to enlist in it; and 
about 200 were permitted to settle near Algoa Bay with 
Dr. Vanderkemp, who in the midst of these turmoils com- 
menced, in 1802, his Hottentot mission, from which, in spite 
of innumerable discouragements, inestimable benefits have 
eventually flowed to the aboriginal race and to the colony *. 

The frontier colonists do not appear to have learned either 
wisdom or humanity by the sufferings to which many of 
them had been subjected during these disturbances. On the 
contrary, in proportion to the contempt in which they had 
been accustomed to hold the natives, was their exasperation 

* See Philip's Researches, vol. i. pp. 63 — 107, etpatsim. 



OPPREI^SIONS ANiD CRUELTIES. 253 

at their attempt to vindicate their claims to the rights of men, 
and at the degree of success which had attended that attempt. 
After the submission of the insurgent Hottentots, many 
of the colonists continued to treat them worse than ever. 
Maimings, murders, cruelties of all sorts, and some too 
shocking to be described in decent language, were perpetrated 
upon these unhappy people — more especially in the district 
of Uitenhage*. The proclamation of Lord Caledon f 
(mentioned at page 68), humanely intended for their 
protection, rather increased the animosity than excited the 
fears of those who still fancied themselves beyond the reach 
of legal responsibility. A letter, however, from the missionary 
Mr. Read, in which some of those enormities were mentioned, 
having been published in England, in 1808, attracted atten- 
tion in high quarters, and Mr. Read and Dr. Vanderkemp were 
called to Cape Town in 1811, to give information to the 
Governor on the subject. They instantly obeyed the summons ; 
and produced such evidence of intolerable oppressions as led 
to the appointment of a special commission for the investigation 
of the cases. But before further proceedings could take place, 
the Earl of Caledon was relieved by another governor, and 
Dr. Vanderkemp died. 

Nevertheless, in consequence of the facts made knowii by 
the missionaries, the important measure was at this period 
adopted of instituting judicial circuits. These consisted of 
deputations of members of the Supreme Court, appointed to 
proceed annually through the interior districts, on purpose to 
investigate all complaints and abuses, and to try all offences 



* Of those deeds of darkness, I have now before me a statement or journal, 
written from 1806 to 1811 by a highly respectable resident, who gave it to me 
as I was about to leave the colony. It is a large folio manuscript, extending to 
forty-four pages, and contains a brief detail of crimes and cruelties committed 
against Hottentots, chiefly in the frontier districts, with the names of all the 
parties and witnesses, many of whom are still alive. It is a truly horrible record, 
and but too well bears out all that Mr. Barrow has alleged against the back- 
country boors of former days. 

+ Commissioner Bigge on the Hottentot Population, p. 5. — Philip's 
Researches, vol. i. p. 142. 



354 COLONIAL REDRESS. 

brought under their cognisance. On their first institution, 
however, these Circuit Courts did not afford any very encourag- 
ing prospect of their realising the purposes intended by the 
Goyernment. Being usually composed of persons who were 
tbemselYes slave -holders, and deeply imbued with the predomi- 
nating colonial feelings in regard to the African race, their 
early verdicts were generally far more remarkable for extreme 
leniency to white delinquents, than for accordaj[ice with the 
claims of impartial justice, or regard to the lives and limbs of 
his Majesty's coloured subjects. The following cases may serve 
for specimens. One miscreant, named De Clerq, a wealthy 
colonist, who was convicted, upon the dearest evidence, of 
having been in the habiHuil practice of mutilating his Hotten- 
tots in a most inhuman and indescribable manner, was merely 
subjected to a fine of 500 rizdoUars, or somewhat less than 50/. 
sterling. And another monster, in the district of Swellendam, 
named Cloete, who was found guilty of shooting, in mere wan- 
ton wickedness, a Hottentot woman, with a child in her arms, 
was solemnly doomed to kneel down blind-folded, to have a 
naked sword passed over his neck by the executioner, and to 
be banished the colony, under the penalty of becoming liable 
to a < severer punishment' if he should return ; the latter part 
of the sentence, being merely intended to save appearances, 
was never actually enforced*. However, after some severe 
animadversions by Sir John Cradock, upon these and similar 
verdicts, the Circuit Courts became somewhat more attentive 
to outward decency, at least, in their decisions ; and the alarm 
and exposure produced by the publicity of the proceedings, and 
the facilities which they afforded for the reception of complaints 
from the natives in the remote districts, had a very beneficial 
effect in intimidating the more savage portion of the colonists 
from the perpetration of such gross outrages as had once been 
common. 



♦ The details of this case, which occurred in July, 1812, together with Sir 
John Gradock's spirited remarks on the sentence, may be seen in * Rsher's 
Importance of the Cape of Good Hope/ London, 1816. 



COLONIAL BBDBBBf. 256 

Without entering into any detailed review of colonial legis- 
lation respecting the native population, I shall merely observe 
that a proclamation issued by Sir John Cradock, in 1812, and 
another by Lord Charles Somerset, in 1819, had a decided ten- 
dency to deteriorate the condition of the Hottentots *. But 
even in regard to points where the colonial law was better, such, 
with very rare exceptions, was the disposition of the landdrosts 
and inferior local functionaries to connive at, or openly to sup- 
port, the oppressive encroachments of the colonists upon the 
natives, that the protective clauses of Lord Caledon*s well- 
meant proclamation had become in most of the districts nearly, 
if not altogether, a dead letter f. Some of these functionaries 
enforced coercive regulations of their own, in direct contraven- 
tion both of the spirit and letter of those clauses. The 
Hottentots were considered, and systematically treated, as 
incapacitated to hold land, or to exist in any other condition, 
even though they had the means, than that of menial servitude 
to the colonists. Their complaints of ill-usage were generally 
treated with neglect, or repelled by punishment; while large 
licence was given to the exertion of arbitrary authority by the 
masters. Moreover the colonists, with but few exceptions, were, 
to use the words of Commissioner Bigge, " averse to the natives 
receiving moral or religious instruction of any kind;'' and the 
provincial functionaries, who were for the most part thoroughly 
imbued with the same feelings, and who, in the exercise of 
their discretion, were subject to no controul, suffered only a 
very limited number to join the missionary institutions, and in 
many cases, and more especially in the district of Uitenhage, 
harassed those institutions with such intolerable oppressions as 
greatly to circumscribe their usefulness, and frequently to 
endanger their very existence t. 

• See Commissioner Bigge's Report on Hott. Population, p. 9. 

f Commissionerg' Report on Government of the Ci^, pp. 9, 19. 

X See, on the above points, and on the condition and treatment of the Hot- 
tentot population generally, the valuable Report of Commissioner Bigge, already 
repeatedly referred to ; also Dr. Philip's work, passim ; and the admirable 
letters of Dr. Vanderkemp to the Colonial Authorities, inserted in the Appen- 
dix to Mr. Bannister s ' Humane Policy.' 



266 CASE OF sfuUKMAK. 

The circumstances which attended the extinction of the last 
independent kraal, or horde, of free Hottentots within the 
colony, will serve well to illustrate the state of colonial feeling 
which then existed towards the race. 

Among the principal leaders of the Hottentot insurgents in 
their wars with the hoors, were three brothers of the name of 
Stuurman. The manly bearing of Klaas, one of these brothers, 
is commemorated by Mr. Barrow, who was with the English 
General Vandeleur, near Algoa Bay, when this Hottentot chief 
came, with a large body of his countrymen, to claim the pro- 
tection of the British. '<We had little doubt," says Mr. 
Barrow, " that the greater number of the Hottentot men who 
were assembled at the bay, after receiving favourable accounts 
from their comrades of the treatment they experienced in the 
British service, would enter as volunteers into this corps ; bnt 
what was to be done with the old people, the women, and the 
children ? Klaas Stuurman found no difficulty in making a pro- 
vision for them. < Restore,' said he, < the country of which our 
fathers have been despoiled by the Dutch, and we have nothing 
more to ask/ — I endeavoured to convince him, (continues Mr. 
Barrow,) how little advantage they were likely to derive from 
the possession of a country, without any other property, or the 
means of deriving a subsistence from it : but he had the better 
of the argument. * We lived very contentedly,' said he, * before 
these Dutch plunderers molested us ; and why should not we 
do so again, if left to ourselves ? Has not the Grroot Baas 
(the Great Master) given plenty of grass-roots, and berries, and 
grasshoppers for our use ? and, till the Dutch destroyed them, 
abundance of wild animals to hunt ? and will they not turn and 
multiply when these destroyers are gone?"* 

On the settlement of the civil disturbances in the interior of 
the colony, after it had reverted to the Dutch, in 1803, Klaas 
Stuurman, who had rendered essential services to the Govern- 
ment in the pacification of his insurgent countrymen, was 
formally appointed a Hottentot Captain by Governor Janssens ; 
and a tract of land was allotted to the three brothers and their 



CASS OF 8TUURMAK. 257 

followers, on the Little Camtoos River, in the district of Uit- 
enhage. They then retired thither with such scanty stock of 
sheep and cattle as they could muster, and continued to live 
quietly^ after the manner of their forefathers, by pasturage and 
hunting. 

On the death of Klaas Stuurman, who was killed shortly 
afterwards by an accident in hunting the buffalo, his brother 
David succeeded him, by the unanimous suffrages of the little 
community, as chief of the kraal. The existence of this inde- 
pendent horde gave, however, great offence to the neighbouring 
boors, — the more especially as the Stuurmans had particularly 
distinguished themselves as leaders of the Hottentots during the 
late distubances. The most malignant calumnies were propa- 
gated against David Stuurman, which Colonel Collins appears 
to have received with too easy credulity, when he visited 
Uitenhage in 1809. The kraal was most jealously watched, 
and every possible occasion embraced of preferring complaints 
against the people, with the view of getting them rooted out, 
and reduced to the same state of servitude as the rest of their 
nation. For seven years no suitable opportunity presented itself 
to obtain the accomplishment of this purpose ; but at length, 
in 1810, when the Colony was once more under the Govern- 
ment of England, David Stuurman and his chief associates 
became outlaws in the following manner. 

Two Hottentots, belonging to this kraal or village, had 
eng^ed themselves, for a certain period, in the service of a 
neighbouring boor, who, when the term of their agreement had 
expired, refused them permission to depart — a practice at that 
time very common, and much connived at by the local function- 
aries. The Hottentots, upon this, went off without permission, 
and returned to their own village. The boor followed them 
thither, and demanded them back ; but their chief, Stuurman, 
refused to surrender them. Next day the boor returned with 
his field-cornet and a party of his armed colonists, to take them 
by force. Stuurman, on the approach of this band, drew up his 
men, and tailed out to the field -comet to beware — for, if he 



258 CA8S OF STUURMAN. 

attempted to enter his kraal in arms, he would fire upon him. 
On this the boors laid down their guns, and tried to cajole 
him, by hdi words, to yield the point. Stnurman, however, 
was staunch to his friends, and refused. A report of his contu- 
macious conduct was, therefore, made to the Landdrost Cuyler; 
and that functionary issued an imperative order for the Hot- 
tentot chief to appear instantly before him, to answer for his 
audacity. Stuurman, apprehensive probably for his personal 
safety, was so infatuated as to refuse or delay compliance ; and, 
in consequence of this, his arrest, and the destruction of his 
kraal, were forthwith determined on. But as he was well 
known to be a resolute man, and much beloved by his country- 
men, who regarded him as a sort of national champion, it was 
considered hazardous to attempt his seizure by open force, and 
the following stratagem was fisdlen upon by the colonists, to 
accomplish this purpose. 

A boor named Cornelius Routenbach, a heemraad (member 
of the landdrost*s council) had by some means or other gained 
Stuurman's confidence, and this man engaged to entrap him. 
On a certain day, accordingly, he sent an express to his friend 
Stuurman, stating that the Gaffers had carried off a number of 
his cattle, and requesting him to hasten with the most trusty 
of his followers to aid him in pursuit of the robbers. The 
Hottentot chief and his party instantly equipped themselves 
and set out. When they reached Routenbach's residence, 
Stuurman was welcomed with every demonstration of cordiality, 
and with four of his principal followers was invited into the 
house. On a signal given; the door was shut, and at the same 
moment the landdrost (Major Cuyler), the field-commandant 
Stollz, and a crowd of boors, rushed upon them from an inner 
apartment, and made them all prisoners. The rest of the Hot- 
tentot party, who had remained outside, perceiving that their 
captain and comrades had been betrayed, immediately dispersed 
themselves. The majority, returning to their kraal, were, 
together with their families, distributed by the landdrost in 
servitude to the neighbouring boors. Some fled into Caffer- 



CASE OV STUURMAV. 259 

land ; and a few were, at the earnest entreaty of Dr. Vander- 
kemp, permitted to join the missionary institution at Bethels- 
dorp. The chie( and his brother bosohman, with two other 
leaders of the kraal, were sent off prisoners to Cape Town, 
where> after undergoing their trial before the Court of Justice^ 
upon an accusation of resistance to the civil authorities of the 
district, they were condemned to work in irons for life, and 
sent to Robben Island, to be confined among other colonial 
convicts. 

Stuurman's kraal thujs effectually broken up, the Landdrost 
Cuyler asked and obtained, as a grant for himself, the lands the 
Hottentots had occupied. Moreover, this functionary kept in 
his own service, without any legal agreement, some of the chil- 
dren of the Stuurmans, jnntil after the arrival of the Commis- 
sioners of Inquiry in 1823. 

Stuurman and two of his comrades, after remaining for some 
y«ars j^rtscmers in Robben Island, contrived to escape, and 
effected their retreat through the whole extent of the colony 
into Cafferlandt a distance of more than six hundred miles. 
Impatient, however, te return to his £ekmily, Stuurman, in the 
year 1816^ sent out a message to the missionary Mr. Read, 
£rom whom he had formerly experienced kindness, intreating 
him to endeavour to procure permission for him to return in 
peace. Mr. Read, as he himself informed me, made application 
in his behalf to the Landdrost Cuyler — ^but without avail : that 
magistrate recommended that he should remain where he was. 
Three years afterwards, the unhappy exile ventured to return 
into the colony without permission. But he was not long in 
being discovered and apprehended, and was once more sent a 
prisoner to Cape Town, where he was kept in close confine- 
ment till the year 1823, when he was finally transported as a 
convict to New South Wales. What became of Boschman, the 
third brother, I have never leamt« — Such was the fate of the 
last Hottentot chief who attempted to stand up for the rights 
of his countrymen *. 

* The above statement having been published by me after my return to 
England in 1826, attracted the attention of the upright and benevolent 



260 CONDITION OF THE HOTTENTOTS DURING 

I turn now to the general state of the Colonial Hottentots 
during my own residence at the Cape. Their condition had 
certainly been in some points improved since the days of 
Barrow. That writer estimates the whole number of the race 
then existing within the colony at about 15,000 souls, and 
states that of late years they appeared to be rapidly decreasing. 
That they had been in former times much more numerous than 
they were when Mr. Barrow wrote, cannot be doubted, though 
he apparently somewhat underrates their numbers in 1798. In 
Mr. Thompson's population tables, they are rated, in 1806, at 
20,426 ; and in 1823, at 80,549 ; exhibiting a gradual increase 
of about 1 0^000 in seventeen years. This proves at least that 
since the colony became a permanent appendage to the British 
empire, the protection of the aboriginal race had been rendered 
somewhat more efficient^ and their condition in some respects 
ameliorated. The rapid increase of the European popula- 
tion, which during the same period, from 1806 to 1823, had 
increased from 27,000 to 49,000, had created a degree of 
competition for Hottentot servants which, even under all the 
disadvantages of their situation, necessarily secured for the 
natives, as a body, milder treatment than in former days, and 
formed, perhaps, not the least influential cause of the increase 
of their numbers. 



General Bonrke, then Lieutenant Governor at the Cape, who immediately 
wrote to the Governor of New South Wales in behalf of David Stuurman. In 
consequence of this intervention, as I understand, Stuurman was relieved from 
some of the severities of his condition as a convict, and obtained what is called ' a 
ticket of leave,' an indulgence which gives the holder the privilege of eanung 
wages for his own benefit. In 1829, the four children of David Stuurman, 
dirough the kindly aid of Mr. Bannister, presented a memorial to Sir Lowrj 
Cole, then Governor at the Cape, intreating his Exce11ency*s intervention to 
procure the recal of their banished parent ; but I am not aware that any steps 
were taken in the affair by Sir Lowry. In 1 831, General Bourke having been 
appointed Governor of New South Wales, I had some correspondence on the 
subject with him in London ; and he then obtained the consent of the Coloniil 
Department to Stuurman being restored to his native country and family, pro- 
vided his return was not opposed by the Cape Government. The ' Last Chief 
of the Hottentots,^ however, had been released by death, before General Bourke 
reached his new Government. A communication which the General was so 
good as to address to me, soon after his arrival at Sydney, conveyed the info^ 
mation that Stuurman had died in the hospital, in 1830; and that his condoct 
in the colony had been good. 



THE author's residence AT THE CAPE. 261 

Accordingly, I found them generalfy more decently clothed 
and better fed than they are described by very competent 
^dtnesses to have been the case in 1798. Bnt to this 
obseryation there were still numerous exceptions. Even in the 
houses of some of our wealthiest neighbours on the Tarka, 
were to be found Hottentot females with no other coyering 
than the sheep-skin caross, and the wretched apron of leathern 
thongs hung round the lions. And among the men sent to be 
our guard at Glen-Lynden, in 1821, was a poor fellow from 
the Rhinosterberg, named Slinger, who had never possessed 
decent clothing till I gave him a pair of old trousers. This 
man informed me that he and his family were chiefly main- 
tained by their master on quagga's flesh ; and he exhibited to 
me the marks of a musket-ball through the calf of his leg, and 
of swan-shot in other parts of his body, which he said had been 
fired at him by a former master, for absconding from his service I 
This, however, had occurred several years before ; and, since 
the example made of the insurgent boors in 1816, such acts of 
violent outrage had certainly become comparatively rare in our 
eastern province. 

But with all the mitigations and ameliorations that had 
taken place, the condition of the Hottentots, as a class of 
people, was still exceedingly deplorable — their spirit broken, 
and their character degraded. I cannot give a better description 
of their general state than in the words of a very intelligent 
colonial correspondent, who has himself been for many years 
a provincial functionary, and possessed of the best possible 
opportunities for forming a correct and impartial judgment on 
the subject. He states expressly, that, << until the Hottentots 
were placed (in 1828) on the same footing with the rest of his 
Majesty's free subjects in the colony, they were decidedly in a 
more degraded condition than the slaves, in every respect, 
except that they were not saleable, and this very distinction 
was itself one cause of their greater degradation. They 
were employed in every species of occupation in which slaves 
are employed, and were subject to the same sort of coercion 



262 THEIR DEGRADED CONDITION. 

and punishment. They were not so well fed as the slaves, 

and seldom clad hy the master. There was not the interest 

to render them comfortahle which operated in favour of the 

slaves. The dangers and privations to which the slave-owner 

would never think of exposing his purchased hondman, were 

forced upon the Hottentot without scruple or hesitation *,** 

And in illustration of the fact last stated, the writer remarks, 

that in places infested with lions, Hottentots were almost 

invariahly sent to attend the cattle; the lives of the slaves 

being considered too valuable to be risked, while a Hottentot 

oould be replaced with little difficulty and at no expense. — 

<< Male slaves," he continues, '< often, it is true, took Hottentot 

wives, from the natural desire to be the Others of free children, 

but few female slaves took Hottentot husbands ; to do so was 

considered in them a < falling off.' The Hottentots were 

universally far less respected than the slaves, and had conse* 

quently become less respectable. They had g^dually sunk in 

their own estimation, as they became weaker and weaker as a 

nation, and as they were treated with more and more severity 

and contempt." 

He farther remarks, that he had *^ often heard many well- 
disposed Dutch- Aj&ican farmers, who had passed all their lives 
among slaves and Hottentots, and constantly employed both 
classes in their service, maintain, when the experiment oi 
emancipating the latter from coercion was proposed, that 
such a scheme was altogether chimerical ; and that the innate 
improvidence of the Hottentot race rendered ^ leading strings' 
necessary for them till their dying day. They would contrast 
the anxiety of the slave to add to his little comforts with the 
recklessness of the Hottentot, expending all his wages in 
strong liquor or on useless finery, and squandering his live 
stock as soon as it was left at his disposal, utterly regardless of 
the morrow. And they would thence argue, that if propertg 
were not involved, you might beneficially and safely give 



♦ See some very instructive remarks on this topic by Dr. Philip in hii 
JResearcheSj vol. ii. p. 314. 



EXERTIONS FOR THEIR RELIEF. 263 

freedom to the slaves, while 70a could not^ without great 
danger and damage to all parties, emancipate the Hottentots ; 
forgetting," he justly adds, ** that the opposite conduct of 
these two classes might he reasonably accounted for, not from 
any essential difference of nature, but from the effects of 
stimulants operating to a certain extent even upon the slave, 
to which the Hottentot, in his state of abject depression, was 
a stranger." 

Such was the condition and character of the enthralled 
aborigines of the Cape Colony, when Dr. Philip published, in 
April 1828, his important work, entitled, < Researches in South 
Africa.' By this publication, the oppressions of the native 
race, as they existed under the sway of England, were for the 
first time brought fairly under the eye of the British public. 
At the same time Mr. Fowell Buxton (who, in conjunction 
with his venerable friend Mr. Wilberforce, had exerted himself 
to obtain, several years before, the appointment of that Com- 
mission of Inquiry which has rendered such essential services 
^o South Africa) had given notice of a motion in Parliament 
for the full extension of the rights of freemen to the Hot- 
tentot people. A serious debate in the House of Commons 
was anticipated ; although of the triumphant result, in a 
case so irresistible, it was difficult to doubt, especially when 
brought forward with the support of such a phalanx as had 
cordially pledged themselves to aid Mr. Buxton on this 
occasion — a phalanx comprising the names of Brougham and 
Mackintosh, of Denman and Lushington, and many others 
enshrined in the annals of humanity. It is with a melancholy 
pleasure that I recal to mind, in connexion with this subject, 
the circumstances of my first acquaintance with the late Sir 
James Mackintosh, and of spending the greater part of two 
delightful days with that highly-gifted and fine-minded man, 
while he was preparing for the anticipated debate. But before 
the day for the discussion of his motion arrived, Mr. Buxton 
found himself a conqueror, without a conflict. Sir George 
Murray, then Colonial Secretary, having in the meanwhile 



264 COLONIAL CLAMOUR. 

made himself master of the case, and heing happily in this 
instance unembarrassed by any powerful ' colonial interest' in 
Parliament, yielded with frankness all that was asked by the 
friends of humanity. Mr. Buxton claimed for the Hottentot 
race simply the full enjoyment of the civil and social rights to 
which by the law of England they were acknowledged, as free 
men, to be entitled — that they should, in short, be placed by 
law on the same footing precisely with the rest of his Majesty's 
free subjects in the same colony. This claim was fully concurred 
in by the Government ; and it was agreed that an Order in 
Council should be issued without delay to carry it into effect. 

It would, however, be unjust to Genera] Bourke» then 
Acting-Governor at the Cape of Good Hope, not to mention 
that long before intelligence reached the colony of what had 
occurred in England, he had issued the 50th Colonial Ordi- 
nance, by which the same object, the effectual emancipation of 
the Hottentot people, was accomplished. On this Ordinance 
being transmitted to Downing-street, all that was necessary 
was added by Sir George Murray — an Order in Council, 
namely, confirming it in all points ; with the important clanse, 
that it should not be competent for any Governor or other 
Colonial Authority to alter or abrogate any of its provisions. 
This Ordinance was passed at the Cape of Good Hope on 
July 17, 1828, only two days subsequent to the public con- 
currence of the Colonial Secretary in Parliament to the 
principle of Mr. Buxton's motion ; and it was ratified by the 
Order in Council on January 15, 1829. Thus was the Magna 
Charta of the Aborigines of South Africa secured. 

On the promulgation of the emancipation Ordinance, a 
prodigious clamour was raised throughout the colony, in which 
a very large proportion of all classes of the white population 
joined, including persons high in office who ought to have 
evinced a very different spirit. The absolute ruin of the 
colony from this measure was loudly and confidently predicted. 
It was asserted that the fields would lie untilled, and the fiocks 
go untended, for want of labourers and herdsmen ; and that 



COLONIAL CLAMOURS. 26^ 

the white inhabitants generally would be reduced to ruin from 
this cause, and by being plundered by marauding hordes of 
Hottentot banditti. For it was assumed, as a result not to be 
questioned, that no Hottentot would work unless compelled by 
coercion, and that the whole race would betake themselves to a 
life of idleness, vagrancy, and robbery, when no longer held in 
servitude by compulsory laws. The retrogression of the race 
into barbarism was affected to be deplored ; and the whole of 
these calamitous consequences were ascribed, in terms of no 
measured vituperation, by a swarm of pro-slavery pamphleteers 
and journalists, to Mr. Buxton and < the Saints ' at home, and 
to Dr. Philip, Mr. Fairbairn, and a few other * meddling, 
mischievous hypocrites' in the colony. That the ignorant 
Dutch- African boors should exhibit great jealousy of the 
political importance and equal privileges conferred on a race of 
people whom they had from infancy been accustomed to regard 
as an inferior caste, doomed to be hewers of wood and drawers 
of water to the ' Christians,' was not at all surprising; but 
more liberal sentiments might have been naturally expected, 
one would imagine, from many of the English colonists (and 
those not of the lowest class) who joined most vociferously in 
this ungenerous outcry. But the British settlers had now 
become active competitors with the boors for native labourers, 
and in placing themselves in a similar position, the majority 
had with lamentable facility adopted similar sentiments. It is 
with sorrow I feel myself forced to corroborate the severe but 
just remark, that " if the Hottentots have gained little by 
their service with the Cape-Dutch masters, that of the English 
settlers has not been more advantageous *.'* 

Not having been myself in the colony at the period when 
this great change in the condition of the natives was effected, 
it is particularly satisfactory to me to be enabled to describe 
the results, upon the authority, and mostly in the words, of a 
rery intelligent correspondent, himself a provincial functionary. 



* Commissioner Bigge on the Hottentot Population, p. 22. 

N 



266 CONDUCT OF COLONIAL FUNCTIONARIES. 

and in every respect a most competent evidence on the subject. 
My friend admits, that immediately on the promulgation of 
the Ordinance, vagrancy to a considerable extent did take 
place among the Hottentots. Finding themselves all at once 
released from the coercive shackles and oppressive disabilities 
to which their race had been so long subjected, a large portion, 
from a not unnatural impulse, left the service of the colonists, 
as soon as their contracts of servitude expired, and some 
even fancied themselves authorised by the new law to break 
short those engagements. Many repaired to the missionary 
institutions (which but few had been previously permitted to 
enter), without having adequate means to maintain themselves 
there. Numbers flocked to the district towns and villages, 
where the temptations of cheap brandy, procurable by little 
labour, soon betrayed many into profligate habits^ and led 
some of them to commit depredations on the flocks of the 
farmers. These disorders, my correspondent observes, might 
have been very easily restrained by the due enforcement merely 
of the existing laws against vagrancy ; and he quotes the 
opinion of Mr. Justice Burton, as perfectly coinciding with 
his own upon this point. But for some time it seemed as if 
the greater part of the provincial functionaries had tacitly 
combined to refrain from enforcing the existing laws for the 
suppression of the petty disorders which prevailed ; with the 
view, apparently, of increasing the clamour against the eman- 
cipating Ordinance, so generally detested by the dominant 
classes, and of thus promoting the aims of those who were 
striving to obtain the repeal of that Ordinance, or, at ail 
events, the enactment of some very strong coercive laws for 
the coloured population. Happily, however, at this crisis, the 
Order in Council of January 15, 1829, arrived in the colony ; 
which, leaving no alternative for the Colonial Authorities, but 
the unqualified enforcement of the Ordinance, quashed for ever 
all such mischievous intrigues. It soon became apparent*, ako^ 
to every one, that the accounts of disorders committed by the 
Hottentots, with which the pro-slavery journals continuallj 



IMPROVED CONDITION OP THE HOTTENTOTS. 267 

oyerflowed, were most maliciously and preposterously exag- 
gerated; and, moreover, many thefts which had been loudly 
ascribed to them, were discovered to have been committed by 
a band of white depredator? at Graham's Town. In point of 
fact, although there was a great deal of drunkenness among 
the more demoralised portion of the natives who had flocked 
to the district towns, and a good deal of pilfering, doubtless, by 
those whom the indulgence of this destructive vice had driven 
to desperate shifts for subsistence, yet even among this class 
nothing like systematic robbery, deliberate outrage, or serious 
disturbance of the peace did actually take place. On the 
contrary, the partial disorders, naturally occurring under such 
circumstances, were found to be very easily repressed by the 
ordinary police of the country, when due diligence was used to 
effect this object ; while the quiet and orderly conduct of the 
great body of the Hottentot people furnished the best practical 
refutation of those who had represented the whole race as unfit 
for the enjoyment of rational liberty. 

The great body of the Hottentot people still remained, in 
^Mst, just as they were formerly, servants to the white colonists, 
though with some essential differences in their condition. They 
could no longer be flogged at the mere caprice of the master, 
if they happened to offend him. They could not now be 
punished, until they had been tried and condemned on compe- 
pent evidence by a magistrate, and for a legal offence. Their 
children could no longer be forcibly taken from them ; they 
were free to change their masters when their terms of service 
had expired ; and they could no longer be compelled to serve 
for inadequate wages, or for none. They formed now, in short, 
a body of free peasantry, instead of being a degraded caste of 
miserable and oppressed serfi. 

The general condition of these emancipated helots, after four 
years of freedom, is well described in a letter written by a most 
respectable resident, and inserted in the ' South- African Adver- 
tiser' for June 16, 1832, the accuracy of which I am enabled 
to vouch for on recent and high official authority. I may add 

N 2 



268 IMPROVED CONDITION OF THE HOTTENTOTS. 

that the ' great improvement' mentioned by the writer, in the 
moral condition of the people, was still proceeding at the close 
of 1833 with a steady pace. 

"You inquire whether I have not noticed the paucity of 
crime charged against the Hottentots, and other coloured 
classes, at the last circuit ; in reply to which, I am happy to 
say, that it has been a matter of remark, and is a fact worthy of 
record, that crime amongst the coloured population has of late 
greatly diminished. Not only is the number of the delinquents 
lessened, but the character of the offences charged, is of a much 
lighter cast than heretofore. This state of things might have 
been anticipated by persons of ordinary sagacity ; but, under 
the excitement occasioned by the promulgation of the 50tb 
Ordinance, people could not calmly calculate the results to be 
expected from such an important alteration as an entire change 
in the condition of one whole class of the community ; — and, 
because a few of that class were found to abuse that liberty of 
which they all at once found themselves in possession, the 
colonists were led to complain grievously of the law, — which in 
fact merely removed unjust disabilities from a particular por- 
tion of their fellow-subjects, — ^without reflecting that the evils 
complained of were only of a temporary character — the natural 
results of the re-action. During the last circuit, I have had 
opportunities of witnessing the conduct of the coloured popula- 
tion, under a variety of circumstances ; and of hearing a great 
deal more said respecting it than I actually saw ; and from the 
whole I may venture to assert, and the fact is undeniable, that 
a great improvement is clearly manifest in their moral condi- 
tion. They are gradually acquiring information ; many display 
provident habits who formerly paid no regard to the future; 
and an earnest desire to procure for their children the benefits 
of education is very generally observable among them. All 
these circumstances may be overlooked by a casual observer, 
but they are * signs of the times,' which indicate that an impor- 
tant alteration in the state of our society may be looked for; 
and this will assuredly take place in spite of all opposition to 



KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT. 269 

the contrary. Who, then, would not wish, amidst changes of 
whatever nature, to be found ranked with the humane ? and 
how superlatively miserable will that man be, who finds himself 
defeated in his attempts to perpetuate injustice, or to protect 
cruelty ! '* 

In the meanwhile another important experiment has been 
made upon the Hottentot race. This was an attempt to esta- 
blish a portion of them as occupiers of land. The justice and 
expediency of restoring to this class of men some small portion 
of the soil of their native country — of the land of their fore- 
fathers, had been urged upon the attention of the Home 
Government in 1824 by Mr. Buxton, in moving for papers 
relative to the condition of the Hottentots, and for accounts of 
all grants of land made either to Hottentots or Bushmen. In 
1823, the subject had been brought under the notice of 
his Majesty's Commissioners at the Cape, partly by a paper 
submitted to them by myself *, and also, I believe, by more 
comprehensive statements given in by Dr. Philip, and after- 
wards, in substance, comprised in his work. In 1825, while 
resident on the eastern frontier, I drew up memorials for grants 
of land in the Ceded Territory, for eight of the most respectable 
families of Mulatto Hottentots residing at Glen-Lynden ; and 
which (though then unattended to) I had the satis^Eiction of 
bringing under the favourable consideration of General Bourke, 
just before my departure for England, in 1826. The Commis- 



• The paper referred to, dated October 12, 1823, was entitled * Hints of a 
Plan for defending the Elastern Frontier of the Colony by a Settlement of Hot- 
tentots.* The scheme proposed was, to plant a line of villages or hamlets in 
suitable situations through the Ceded Territory, from the Winterberg mountain 
to the coast ; — ^the inhabitants to be composed of free Hottentots, selected partly 
from the several missionary institutions, and partly from the most intelligent of 
those in the service of the colonists ; — the arable land to be divided in small 
shares among the inhabitants, and granted on perpetual quit-rent, or in freehold, 
with a commonage for pasture to each village ; — a native field-cornet and school- 
master to be appointed to each village, and missionaries or chaplains to be sta* 
tloned in centrical situations to visit them in rotation for religious instruction ; 
—the settlers to be trained to arms as a militia, and placed under the superin- 
tendence of a mi^strato specially selected for the charge. 



270 ACCOUNT OF THE 

sioners of Inquiry, moreoyer, bad shown themselves decidedly 
favourable to the granting of land to the natives, although it 
appears from their Report printed in 1830, that they considered 
it << desirable that the Hottentots should not be congregated in 
one spot ; and that in restoring to them a portion of that terri- 
tory which was once their own, and in admitting them to the 
enjoyment of privileges in common with the rest of his Majes- 
ty's subjects in South Africa, any measures should be avoided 
which might tend to impress them with an opinion that they 
are destined to form a distinct class of the population^." 

It was not, however, till 1829 that steps were adopted by the 
local Government to restore to a portion of the aboriginal inha- 
bitants a share in the soil of South Africa. Capt. Stockenatrom 
had the entire merit of proposing the measure; and, haying 
obtained the approbation of the Government to the plan he had 
drawn up, he was authorised to carry it into execution in his 
capacity of Commissioner General of the Eastern Province. 
The spot selected for the experiment was a tract of wild country 
from which the Caffer chief Makomo had been expelled a short 
while before. It is a sort of irregular basin, surrounded on all 
sides by lofty and majestic mountains, from the numerous kloofe 
of which six or seven fine streams are poured down the subsi- 
diary dells into the central valley. These rivulets, bearing the 
euphonic Caffer names of Camalu, Zeb^nzi^ Umtoka, Manka- 
zana, Umtuarva, and Quonci, unite to form the Kat River, 
which finds its way through the mountain barrier by a stupen- 
dous poort or pass a little above Fort Beaufort. Within this 
mountain basin, which, from its great command of the means of 
irrigation is peculiarly well adapted for a dense population, it 
was resolved to ^il the Hottentot settlement. 

The following account of the mode in which this interest- 
ing colony was established is chiefly (though not exclusively) 
compiled from a paper drawn up by the ofiScer to whose 
able management it was intrusted, and which appeared in the 



Commissioner Bike's Report on the Hottentot Population, p. 22. 



KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT. 271 

South- AiHcan Almanac for 1831. The experiment was at 
first intended to be upon a small scale. The Commissioner- 
General proceeded to make known the views of Government, 
and to invite from the several missionary stations, and from 
other quarters where Hottentots had congregated, a limited 
number of men of good character for the new colony, giving a 
preference to those possessed of property, and to such as had 
served in the Cape Corps. It was soon found impracticable, 
however, to adhere to any principle of strict selection. Hot- 
tentots flocked in from all quarters, and among many of known 
respectability and steady habits, many also of very indifferent 
character, and even some who had till then been considered 
vagabonds, came and entreated to be put upon probation. The 
Commissioner was somewhat puzzled how to act with these 
last ; but, from a humane feeling which does him much honour, 
he adopted the more indulgent course*. 



* The plan adopted in the distribation of the land was, to divide the whole 
tract into locations of from foar to six thousand acres each ; to plant in each 
location one, two, or more vilh^es or hamlets, according as eligible situations 
were found for irrigation ; to divide the arable land into allotments of from four 
to six acres, of which every family capable of cultivating it received one, while 
additional lots were reserved for such as should distinguish themselves by supc- 
rior industry, or by their exertions in maintaining good order, or who after the 
period of probation should be able to show that they possessed ample means for 
the profitable occupation of more land. The pasture land was reserved for 
commonage to each location. The conditions imposed on the grantees were, to 
build a substantial cottage of comfortable dimensions, to inclose the arable 
ground, and to bring it into a proper state of cultivation \(ithin a period of five 
years ; at the expiration of which, the conditions being fulfilled, the property 
was to be granted in freehold ; but if these conditions were neglected, the allot- 
ment to revert to Government. Each holder of one or more allotments to have 
a right to keep a quantity of live stock on the location, in proportion to the 
extent of his arable land and the capabilities of the pasturage. Within each 
location an allotment was reserved for the site of a school ; and the situation 
for a town to be hereafter founded was marked out below the poort, near Fort 
Beaufort 

The boundaries of the settlement will be found traced upon the Map, with 
some of the principal villages, bearing the names spontaneously conferred on 
them by the Hottentots, in honour of the persons whom they justly consider as 
the best friends of their race. The village of Wilberforce has been accidentally 
omitted. Balfour was the name of a missionary institution established by the 
Glasgow Society among Makomo*s Caffers before their expulsion from this 
territory. 



272 ACCOUNT OP THE 

Meanwhile, the threatening attitude of the Gaffers, exaspe- 
rated by their recent expulsion froxa this fertile spot, rendered 
it indispensible to arm the new settlers to enable them to 
protect their lives and property. This was considered a most 
dangerous step by the white colonists in general, who viewed a 
congregation of Hottentots armed with muskets, and for the 
most part destitute of property and even of food, with far 
greater apprehension than they did the wild Gaffers who had 
been driven out of this mountain-valley. It was confidently 
predicted, that these coloured settlers would soon turn the 
weapons with which they were intrusted against the colonists, 
as well as against the Gaffers, and that all the horrors of the 
Hottentot war at the close of last century would be renewed. 
The clamour became loud against entrusting them with arms ; 
but the more generous and wiser policy prevailed. " The 
recollection," says Gaptain Stockenstrom, <* that the Hotten- 
tots in question were going to appear on our stage in a new 
character, and that the new stimulus now given, and the 
different tone observed towards them, would place them in a 
different light in their own eyes, as well as in the eyes of the 
community at large, and would naturally alter the springs of 
their propensities and actions, — raised the Governor above the 
influence of those alarms. Muskets were ordered to be lent 
to those who had none of their own ; as much ammunition 
was issued as was deemed requisite for self-defence ; and they 
were called upon in return to show themselves capable of 
enjoying rational freedom, and worthy of the higher destiny 
now placed within their reach." And the heart of the African 
responded nobly to the call. ** The Hottentot, escaped fit)m 
bonds," (I quote the expression of my friend Fairbaim), 
" stood erect on his new territory ; and the feeling of being 
restored to the level of humanity and the simple rights of 
nature, softened and enlarged his heart, and diffused vigour 
through every limb I" 

It was in the middle of winter (about the end of June, 1829) 
when the first settlers were located. About two hundred and 



KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT. 273 

fifty men capable of bearing arms were« with their families, 
settled in five parties, on sach localities as would enable them 
to lead out the water for irrigating the land given them to 
cultivate. The principal families, among whom were the whole 
of our former Mulatto tenants from Glen-Lynden, possessed 
a considerable quantity of live stock; but there were great 
numbers who were totally destitute of property of any descrip- 
tion, — destitute even of food for daily subsistence. Yet under 
these circumstances, although no aid whatever was given them 
by Government, except arms for their defence and a very 
small portion of seed-corn, even the most destitute abstained 
from theft — a crime to which in their servile state they are 
said by some (though I think unjustly) to have been prone. 
Those who had <iaitle assisted their poorer friends and relatives 
with a generous liberality which is characteristic of the race. 
Those who had neither food nor friends, lived upon veld-kost^ 
i, e wild roots and bulbs dug out of the soil, until the land 
they had planted returned them a harvest. Multitudes snb- 
aisted in this manner without a murmur for many months^ 
Extraordinary industry was at the same time exerted. With 
the most wretched implements they cultivated an extent of 
land which astonished every one ; and, independently of the 
labour required in culture, the various parties displayed extra- 
ordinary rivalship in the construction of canals to convey water 
for the irrigation of their fields and gardens. In some places 
those canals were carried through the solid rock ; in others it 
was necessary to cut to the depth of ten or twelve feet to 
preserve the level ; while their entire length through all the 
locations extended to upwards of 20,000 yards*. Meanwhile 
they had sustained many fierce attacks from the Caffers, 
generally made in the dead of night, and had bravely repulsed 
them, without ever indulging the spirit of retaliation or repay- 
ing evil for evil. When the winter was over the Caffers 
ceased to harass the locations, and the neighbouring chiefs, 

* Gxaluim^s Town Journal, June, 1832. 

n3 



274 ACCOUNT OP THE 

especially Makomo, wbo had been driven out of this territory, 
ere long entered into the most friendly relations with the 
settlers. Their industry having been rewarded with an 
abundant harvest, especially of vegetables, their numbers 
continued constantly to increase by fresh accessions of their 
countrymen, until they at length amounted altogether to 
upwards of four thousand souls, of whom about seyen hundred 
were armed with muskets. 

The Governor, Sir Lowry Cole, yisited the settlement the 
year after its establishment, and expressed himself highly 
gratified with the entire success of the experiment to which 
(much to his honour) he had given his sanction. It is indeed 
the act of all others that will confer the most lasting credit on 
Sir Lowry 's administration. He then appointed the Rey. Mr. 
Thomson, who had previously been a presbyterian missionary 
in Cafferland, to the ministerial charge of the settlement; but 
left it for the present without any civil functionaries except 
the native field-cornets and heads of parties appointed by 
Captain Stockenstrom. I may observe, that although the 
prosperity of the settlement is doubtless mainly owing to the 
industry and docility of the people themselves, and to their 
manly determination to prove themselves worthy of their 
newly-acquired privileges, there can be no question that their 
success and good conduct are also to be, in no small measure, 
ascribed to the judicious arrangements and careful superin- 
tendence of Captain Stockenstrom — to the great and well- 
merited influence of Mr. Read, the missionary, who resided 
among them from the commencement — and likewise to the 
valuable labours of the presbyterian pastor, Mr. Thomson. 
Letters are now lying before me from these three meritorious 
individuals, and I cannot perhaps by any other means so well 
convey to the reader a correct impression of the results of this 
important experiment as by giving a few extracts, 

Mr. Thomson, whose letter is dated " Balfour, Kat River, 
June 26, 1831," and is addressed to his father in England, 
remarks that, ^* when the Magna Charta of the Hottentots 



KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT. 275 

was first published, there were many, and even sensible men, 
who predicted that innumerable evils and disasters would arise 
out of it; but three years* experience has proved them dreamers. 
The fact that virtue, industry, and sobriety have increased, is a 
very stubborn testimony. And when the progress of this little 
colony of coloured people for the last two years, and their 
present prosperity, are had regard to, we have a direct and 
overwhelming proof of the safety, wisdom, and national benefit 
of the measures adopted towards them, and of what may be 
expected by pursuing the same liberal and philanthropic prin- 
ciples towards all who are now in bondage." After mentioning 
the numbers of the Hottentot settlers, and their remarkable 
orderly conduct, the writer proceeds : — " They are the most 
efficient covering cordon on this part of the frontier the colony 
ever had, and the most peaceable and loyal subjects. And 
again, if they are regarded simply as free settlers on the soil, 
no settlement ever bid fairer for success. They transported 
themselves hither at their own expense, lived on their own 
resources, and have had no aid from any quarter, except a 
small quantity of seed-corn the first year from Government ; 
and, though struggling with great difficulties, and under many 
disadvantages, they are now in the second year supported from 
the produce of their fields, and have disposed of a considerable 
surplus (30,000 lbs. of barley) for the troops, besides other 
produce carried to market at Graham*s Town." Mr. Thomson, 
after giving a very gratifying detail of the success of his minis- 
terial services in the infant settlement, adds, " Legal marriage 
is now become honourable among the people, and established, 
and connected with their ideas of morality and religion. Our 
parish (which is 60 miles long by from 23 to 30 broad) is 
recognised by the presbytery in the colony ; and it will be an 
astonishing sight to our white brethren, the colonial elders, to 
see a black or brown one sit down with them to consult on 
matters of religion I There will be a hard battle to gain in 
regard to this point, as strong prejudices still exist even in 
some who are otherwise good people.*' 



276 ACCOUNT OF THE 

My next extract is irom a letter addressed to myself, by 
Captain Stockenstrom, on his arrival in England last summer, 
in reply to an application that I made to him for authentic 
information, respecting the state of the native race. After 
detailing the circumstances attending the emancipation of the 
Hottentots, and the considerations that led to the settlement 
of a portion of them on the CafFer frontier, the writer thus 
continues : — " The settlers at Kat River now display the 
utmost anxiety to have schools established among them, and 
several that have been opened are in a very flourishing state. 
So eager are they for instruction, that, when better teachers 
cannot be obtained, if they find any person of their own class 
who can merely spell, they get him to teach to the rest the 
little he knows. They travel considerable distances to attend 
divine service regularly ; and their spiritual guides speak with 
delight of the fruits of their labours. No where have Tem- 
perance Societies been half so much encouraged as among 
this people, formerly so prone to intemperance ; and they 
have, of their own accord, petitioned the Government tbat 
their grants of land may contain a prohibition against the 
establishment of canteens or brandy-houses. They have re- 
pulsed the Caffers on every occasion on which they have been 
attacked, and are now on the best terms with that people. 
They pay every tax like the rest of the inhabitants. They 
have cost the Government nothing, except a little ammunition 
for their defence, about fifty bushels of maize, and a similar 
quantity of oats, furnished to them for seed-corn, and the 
annual stipend of their minister. They have rendered the Kat 
River by far the safest part of the frontier; and the same plan 
followed up on a more extensive scale would soon enable 
Government to withdraw the troops altogether, and put an 
end to that desultory warfare, which cannot feil greatly to 
retard the improvement, both of the colony, and of its barba- 
rous neighbours. 

<< Petty misdemeanours, we must suppose, occur in this as in 
every other community ; but they have not hitherto cost the 



KAT RIVBB SETTLEMENT. 277 

public a magistrate, and the nearest fiinctionary of the kind is 
two long days' ride distant. I recollect only two cases tried 
before the Circuit Courts, in which settlers of the Kat River 
were the accused, and these were but trivial ones. In short, 
the most prejudiced men who have travelled through the loca- 
tions, admit that the Hottentots have done wonders ; and that 
as far as land is arable they have made a garden of it from one 
end to the other. 

" The statement now given may possibly by some be con- 
sidered as too favourable ; and individuals may be found who, 
jealous of the success of this experiment in refutation of all 
their sinister predictions, may point out indolent and unworthy 
characters in the Kat River settlement ; such, of course, existing 
there as well as in every other place where numbers of men are 
congregated. But to these objectors I would reply, that I never 
meant to represent the Hottentots as devoid of faults, or better 
than other people in the aggregate. I have only wished to 
show that, as soon as they were treated as reasonable beings, 
they acted reasonably ; and the facts now stated can be proved 
to the letter." 

The letter of Mr. Read brings down my intelligence to the 
period of its date, October 10, 1833. I shall only quote the 
following sentences : — *' Our settlement goes on well. Much 
grain has been harvested ; and the people having obtained the 
contract for supplying barley to the troops at Fort Willshire 
and the new Post, much more land is cultivated this year than 
last. Captain Campbell, who lately visited us, as Acting 
Commissioner- General in Captain Stockenstrom's absence, 
was quite delighted with the appearance of things here, which 
&ur surpassed every idea he had previously formed." 

These testimonies doubtless proceed from men, who, however 
intelligent and trust-worthy, may be considered as naturally par- 
tial to a settlement which owes its prosperity in so eminent a 
degree to their own meritorious exertions in their several 
spheres. But the evidence of aM who have visited the place. 



278 ACCOUNT OP THE 

whatever were their previous prejudices or predilections, corro- 
borates unanswerably the truth of the facts I have stated. I 
shall not quote the exhilarating accounts given by Dr. Philip, 
Mr. Fairbaim, Dr. Wright, Mr. Bruce, and other zealous friends 
of the native race, or of Mr. Kay, who, in his recent work, has 
spoken so warmly of what he there witnessed. But Mr. Jus- 
tice Menzies, who will not be so readily suspected of any undue 
leaning to the coloured class, was, it appears, not less highly 
pleased with the condition of this settlement, as he found it on 
one of his judicial circuits, than the most enthusiastic of its 
friends or founders *. And I shall conclude the gratifying list 
of testimonies on this topic with that of the Graham's Town 
Journal, which describes the inhabitants of the Kat River 
in the following terms : — Great activity has been displayed, 
and the incipient marks of civilisation are observable in every 
direction. During the last season, were produced on the settle- 
ment 450 muids of wheat, 1,500 muids of barley, and 400 
muids of Indian corn, besides large quantities of caffer-com 
(millet), potatoes, pumpkins, sweet cane^ and many other pro- 
visions. Their loyalty and attachment to the British Govern- 
ment are beyond suspicion ; and it may not be uninteresting to 
state, that at the last receipt of taxes they contributed to the 
revenue a sum of 2,300 rix dollars. All the ordinances of 
religion are punctually attended to by them, whilst in their 
families^ and in the more public transactions of life, they evince 
an extensive practical acquaintance with the requirements of 
Christianity. Education is in great repute, and a manifest 
desire to give their children the benefit of instruction, is a feel- 
ing every where observable. Two Infant Schools have been 
established, and are well attended t«" Again, on a more recent 
occasion, the same paper observes—" In the Kat River settle- 
ment, where it is said there are concentrated 4000 inhabitants, 



* South African Almanac for 1831, p. 236. 
f Graham*8 Town Journal, June, 1832. 



KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT. 279 

and these consistiiig of persons of colour and of different tongues 
and tribes, there is no resident magistrate, nor have they a single 
police officer to preserve the peace ; and yet from what we can 
learn, better order is preserved there than at the seat of magis- 
tracy at Graham's Town *." 

The facts of this case, and of the Hottentot history gene- 
rally, furnish a lesson full of instruction to all whose hearts and 
understandings are not sealed up by the most vulgar prejudices 
of caste and colour. Here we behold a people, debased by 
oppression and contumely, till they had sunk below the level 
even of the negro slaves, their brothers in misfortune ; a people 
for generations made a by-word to the civilised world, for stu- 
pidity, indolence, improvidence, intemperance, — held forth to 
universal scorn as the most brutalised family of the human 
race, and utterly unfit to be intrusted with the common privi- 
leges of humanity. This nation of African Helots, to the 
number of 30,000 souls, have been raised from the dust, at 
once and witljout any preparation (except what a few had re- 
ceived at the missionary institutions), to the full rights of 
free men — placed by law in all respects upon a level with the 
white colonists — thrown upon their own resources, without 
even ordinary care being used to restrain disorders, or any 
adequate anxiety evinced (except by a few friends of the race) 
to guard them from evil or guide them to good. That some 
hundreds out of the mass should have become the victims of 
the habitual intemperance to which the white inhabitants of 
the district towns continually tem'pt them, by paying them 
for labour with ardent spirits, (I state what I have with my 
own eyes a thousand times witnessed,) is surely no great 
marvel. But the quiet and orderly demeanour of the great 
body of this long-maltreated people — above all the astonishing 
progress of the colonists of the Kat River, during the five years 
that they have been placed on probation as free citizens — the 
entire change of character in many formerly considered vaga- 



Graham'8 Town Journal, Jan. 31, 1833. 



280 KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT. 

bonds, as soon as they were enabled to emerge from conscious 
degradation, and the door of manly ambition was flung open 
to them — their self-government, their docility, their singular 
temperance, their industry, their ardour for religious and 
general instruction, and their steady good conduct — are facts 
which speak volumes, and upon which, to intelligent readers, 
I need not add a single word of comment. 



281 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Caffers : Their Name^ Appearance^ Mode of Life, Sfc* 
— Their First Intercourse with the Colonists — Conflicts 
with them in JBruintjes-hoogte and the Zureveld — Settlement 
of the Eastern Boundary in 1798 — Coffer Warofl^W — 
InvoMon of Cafferland in 1818 — The Prophet Makanna 
— Attach on CrrahanrCs Town — Speech of MdkanncLs 
Pagatiy and Fate of that Chief^Lord Charles Somerset* s 
Frontier Policy, and Distribution of the Ceded Territory 
"^The Commando System, — Slaughter of Caffer Envoys 
in 1824, and of the Chief Seko and his Followers in 1830 — 
Recent State of affairs both on the Northern and Eastern 
Frontiers — Treatment of the Chief Makomo — Change of 
System proposed, 

A RESIDENCE of nearly three years on the eastern frontier, 
naturally led me to pay considerable attention to the character 
of our colonial relations with the Caffer tribes ; and my inti- 
macy with several intelligent officers who had had much inter- 
course with those tribes, both in peace and war, as well as with 
missionaries long resident among them, having enabled me to 
acquire information on many points which my own limited 
opportunities of observation did not embrace, I shall endeavour 
to throw together, in the present chapter, a brief summary of 
my researches on this topic. 

For ample details relative to the manners, customs, and 
internal polity of the Caffer tribes, 1 must refer to other writers 
— Barrow, Lichtenstein, Thompson, Kay. I offer the following 
few prefatory remarks for the sake merely of readers hitherto 
unacquainted with this subject. 

The term Coffer, like that of Hottentot, is entirely unknown 
in the language of the people to whom it is applied. It was 
originally a term of contumely (being the Arabic word Caflr 



282 APPEARANCE AND CUSTOMS OF THE CAFFERS. 

or Kafir y signifying' Infidel) employed by the Moorish or 
Arabian inhabitants of the north-eastern coast to designate 
the nations of South-eastern Africa who had not embraced the 
Mohammedan faith ; and from them the term was adopted by 
the early European navigators. The appellation, though some- 
times still applied in a more extensive sense, is generally used 
in the Cape Colony, to denote the three contiguous tribes of 
Amakosa, Amatembu, and Amaponda ; of whom the last may 
be considered identical with the Mambo, or what used to be 
called the Mambookie, •nation. These three tribes, thoi^h 
governed by several independent chiefs, are decidedly one 
people; their language, manners, customs, and polity being 
essentially the same. The Amakosa, whose territory borders 
with the colony from the Winterberg to the coast, is the tribe 
with whom our intercourse, both in peace and war, has been hs 
the most frequent. 

The Caffers are a tall, athletic, and handsome race of men, 
with features often approaching to the European or Asiatic 
model ; and, excepting their woolly hair, exhibiting few of the 
peculiarities of the negro race. Their colour is a clear dark 
brown. Their address is frank, cheerful, and manly. Their 
government is patriarchal ; and the privileges of rank are care- 
fully maintained by the chieftains. Their principal wealth and 
means of subsistence consist in their numerous herds of cattle. 
The females also cultivate pretty extensively maize, millet, 
water-melons, and a few other esculents ; but they are decidedly 
a nation of herdsmen — war, hunting, barter, and agricultme 
being only occasional occupations. 

in their customs and traditions, there seem to be indications 
of their having sprung, at some remote period, from a people 
of much higher civilisation than is now exhibited by any of 
the tribes of Southern Africa ; whilst the rite of circumdsion, 
universally practised among them without any vestige of Isla- 
mism, and several other traditionary customs greatly resembling 
the Levitical rules of purification, would seem to indicate some 
former connection with a people of Arabian, Hebrew, or per- 



THEIR FIRST INTBRCOURSB WITH THE COLONISTS. 283 

haps, Abyssinian lineage. Nothing like a regolar system of 
idolatry exists among them ; but we find some traces of belief 
in a Supreme Being, as weU as in inferior spirits, and sundry 
superstitious usages that look like the shattered wrecks of 
ancient religious institutions. Of their superstitions, the belief 
in sorcery is ^Eur the most mischierous, leading, in the same way 
as among the negroes on the west coast, to many acts of revolt- 
ing oppression and cruelty. 

The clothing of both sexes consists entirely of the skins of 
animals^ rendered soft and pliable by a sort of currying. Their 
arms are the assagai or jarelin, a short club, and a large shield 
of bullock's or bufialo*s hide. The wars between the contiguous 
tribes above-mentioned, or the several clans with each other, 
are seldom very bloody, generally arising from quarrels relating 
to their respective pasture-grounds or the stealing of cattle, 
and bearing little resemblance to the ferocious mode of warfare 
recently pursued with such destructive effect by the Zoola 
nations. The females are seldom slain in their internal wars ; 
and in their conflicts with the colonists, there are many well- 
known examples of their humanity towards females who bad 
£Jlen into their hands. They are harharians^ but not savages^ 
in the strict and proper sense of the term. 

It is a curious and characteristic circumstance that the ear- 
liest notice upon record, of intercourse between the Cape colo- 
nists and the Caffers, is an account of a maurauding expedition 
by a party of the former against the latter. In 1701, a band 
of Cape-Dutch freebooters, under the name of traders or bar- 
terers, marched to the eastward, and after an absence of seven 
months returned with a large quantity of cattle and sheep, 
which they had obtained by plundering a nation called Cabu- 
quas, or Great Caffers, (probably Tambuquas, t. e, Amatembu,) 
t<^ther with two kraals of Hottentots. In the attacks made 
upon these then remote tribes, numbers of the natives had been 
slaughtered. The facts are stated in a despatch sent to Hol- 
land in 1702 by the Governor and Council of the Cape of 
Good Hope, who, while they deplore ^< the intolerable and con- 



281 CONFLICTS BETWEEN COLONISTS AND CAFFERS. 

tinued excesses of some of the free inhabitants, in committing 
acts of violence, with robberies and murders, and by these 
abominable means depriving those poor people of their subsist- 
ence," declare at the same time their inability to punish the 
delinquents *. 

The impunity thus enjoyed by the colonial freebooters (who 
consisted for the most part of the very refuse of Europe, 
disbanded soldiers from mercenary regiments in the Dutch 
service, and the like), led, as was to be expected, to the frequent 
renewal of similar marauding excursions. By this means, and 
by the gradual occupation of all the best parts of the country, 
the Hottentot race were, as we have seen, at length either 
extirpated, reduced to thraldom, or driven to the northern 
deserts. The Caffers, a more numerous and warlike people, 
and acting together in large masses, were not so easily over- 
whelmed. They appear to have successfully resisted on many 
occasions the attacks of the colonists ; but, having only their 
slender missiles to oppose to the musket, they also often 
suffered dreadfully from their aggressions t. 

The Caffers had been for several generations gradually 
pressing upon the Hottentot race from the eastward. This 
is not only known from traditionary memorials, but is manifest 
from most of the names of the rivers west of the Kei being of 
Hottentot etymology. The Hottentot hordes do not appear 
to have been extirpated by them, but to have been partly 
pushed farther westward, and partly incorporated with their 
frontier clans. The Ghonaqua tribe, once numerous and 
powerful, consisted of a people of mixed Caffer and Hottentot 
lineage; and the dialect now spoken. by the frontier Caffers 
partakes to a certain extent of the Hottentot cluck^ a peculi- 
arity not to be found among the tribes farther back. 

The country between the Camtoos and Great Fish rivers 
was, up to 1778, partly occupied by the Ghonaqua tribes 



* Bannister, p. cxv. Philip, voL i. p. 36. 
t Vaillant, vol. i. pp. 337, 352. — See also Capt. Stout's account of the. 
Wreck of the Hercules, (English Abridgment,) p. 80. 



DISPUTES RESPECTING BOUNDARY. 285 

and other hordes of Hottentots still enjoying a precarious 
independence^ partly by Gaffer clans^ intermingled with the 
Ghonaquas, and partly by European colonists, who, in defiance 
of the colonial regxilations, had taken possession of the choicest 
spots they could find beyond the nominal boundary — then 
Camtoos rirer. In 1778, the Governor, Van Plettenberg, 
having, in the course of an extensive tour which he made into 
the interior, visited Bruintjes-hoogte, and finding a considerable 
number of colonists occupying tracts beyond the frontier, 
instead of recalling them within the legal limits, he extended 
the boundary (according to the ordinary practice of Cape 
Governors, before and since), adding, by a stroke of his pen, 
about 30,000 square miles to the colonial territory. It was at 
this period that the Great Fish River was first declared to be 
the colonial boundary on the east. The rights of the Ghonaquas 
and other independent Hottentot tribes within the extensive 
region thus acquired, do not appear to have occupied a single 
thought ; the boors were lefl to deal with them has they had 
dealt with their brethren already extinct : but with the more 
formidable Caffers, the form of an agreement was observed. 
Colonel Collins relates that Colonel Gordon was sent in search 
of Caffers as far as the Keiskamma, and that he conducted 
* a few * to the Governor, who obtained their consent that 
the Great Fisli River should thenceforth be considered the 
boundary between*the two countries *. 

Who were * the few ' that concurred in this agreement, 
it would be vain to inquire ; but it is certain that the principal 
Caffer chiefs wbo had an interest in the affair refused to 
recognize it. Jalumba, then chief of the Amandanka clan of 
the Amakosa, endeavoured to maintain his ground in Bruintjes- 
hoogte " The inhabitants" says Colonel Collins, " reminded 
Jalumba. (in 1781) of the recent treaty, and required his 
immediate departure. Their remonstrance having been disre- 



• ' Supplement to the Relations of a Journey into the Countries of the 
Bosjesman and Caffer People.' By Ldeutenant-Colonel Collins. 1809. MS. 



286 DISPUTES RESPECTING BOUNDARY. 

garded, a commando assembled, by which the intruders were 

expelled with the loss of Jalumba and a great number of his 

followers. His son Dlodlo perished two years afterwards in a 

similar attempt *." Such is the colonial account of the affair; 

but Colonel Collins, who derived his information entirely from 

the boors and local functionaries, has not mentioned that on 

this occasion the expedition (of which Adrian Van Jaarsveld 

was the leader) plundered the Caffers of 5,200 head of cattle, 

which he divided <' after consultation with the Veld-wagtmeester 

and corporals, amongst the commando t«" Nor was this 

the worst. We have got from Mr. Brownlee the Caffer 

account of the transaction, which is at least as mucli deserving 

of credit as the reports of the colonists who had enriched 

themselves with the spoils of the slaughtered CafFers ; and 

from this it appears, that Jalumba and his clan were destroyed 

by a most infEimous act of treachery and murder. The details 

may be found in the works both of Thompson j: and Kay §. 

Vaillant, who spent a considerable time in this part of the 

country in the following year (1782), gives an account of the 

spirit of the frontier boors, and of the oppressions prepetrated 

upon the CafFers, that but too well accords with the story told 

by Mr. Brownlee, from CafFer tradition, of the massacre of the 

Amandanka. ^* A mulatto colonist,*' he says, '< informed me 

that the report of this nation being barbarous and bloody was 

industriously circulated by the colonists, in order to justify the 

atrocious thefts they were daily guilty of towards them, and 

which" they wished to have pass for reprisals. That they often 

formed pretences of losing cattle, purposely to make inroads 

into the Caifers' settlements, exterminating whole hordes 

without distinction of age or sex, carrying away their herds, 

and laying waste the country ; this means of procuring cattle 



• Collins's MS. 
•j- Report of Field-Commandant Van Jaarsveld to the Landdrost and 
Heemraden of Stellcnhosch, dated July 20, 1781. Inserted in De Zwdr 
Afrikaansch Tydschrift^ No. 19. Cape Town, 1827. 

X Thompson, vol. ii. p. 337. § Kay, p. 243. 



ATROCIOUS CONDUCT OF THE COLONISTS. 287 

appearing much easier than the slow method of breeding them. 
In this manner, Hans assured me, twenty thousand head had 
been obtained the last year/' After giving some details of 
particular atrocities reported to him, and making some very 
pertinent remarks upon the flagitious impunity enjoyed by 
these barbarous back-settlers, Vaillant states that when he 
expressed to one of them his surprise that the governor did 
not send down a troop of soldiers to arrest those who com- 
mitted such acts in defiance of all authority, the boor replied, 
that if such a thing were attempted, they would kill half the 
soldiers and send them back salted by those that were spared, 
as an earnest of what they would do to any authority that 
should dare to interfere with them * I Such were the men 
who rose in arms in 1796, and again in 1815, against the 
British Government, in order to vindicate their right to rob 
and murder the natives without controul I 

Nearly about the same period, Zaka, the head of the 
Gunuquebi clan, with some other bands of the Amakosa, had 
obtained possession of the Zureveld, by purchasing with a 
large number of cattle permission to settle there from Kohla 
(called by the Colonists Ruiter), who was then chief of the 
Ghonaqua Hottentots, the original possessors of the country. 
The colonists at the same time advanced into the Zureveld 
from the west. For a number of years the boors and the 
Caffers occupied that district together, with their habitations 
and herds amicably intermingled; until in 1786, some dif- 
ferences arising between them, the colonists called in the chief 
Islambi, the enemy of Zaka, to their assistance. The latter 
chief, being attacked simultaneously by the boors on one side 
and by Islambi with 3000 warriors on the other, was defeated 
and slain ; and his tribe (the Gunuquebi) were plundered by 
the confederates of almost the whole of their cattle, and driven 
by necessity to plunder the colonists for means of subsistence f. 



• Vaillant, vol. i. pp. 352, 361 ; vol. ii. p. 220. 
t Thompson, vol. ii. pp. 337, 339.— Collins's MS. 



288 ATTACK ON THE CAFFERS. 

The boors, however, did not by this means accomplish their 
object. Kongo, the son of Zaka, having been soon afterwards 
joined by Maloo, Toli, Etoni, and several other chiefs at 
enmity with Islambi and Gaika*, and by the remnant of 
the Amandanka under Olila the brother of Jalumba, the 
Gunuquebi, with their allies, re-established themselves in the 
Zureveld, in spite of the colonists, and plundered them in their 
turn of many cattle ; and it is from the period of this struggle, 
and from the destruction of the Amandanka in Bruintjes- 
hoogte, that the bitter animosity of the border tribes, formerly 
friendly^ and their extensive depredations against the colonists, 
are to be dated f. 

In consequence of the representations of the colonists, a 
large commando of Burgher militia was collected in 1793, 
to chastise the Caffers. This force, under the command of 
Mr. Maynier, landdrost of Graaff-Reinet, marched through 
the Zureveld, and penetrated into the Amakosa country four 
days' journey beyond the Great Fish River, driving the natives 
every where before them into the woods, and capturing some 
herds of cattle ; but without obtaining any decided advantage 
over the enemy, who, as soon as the commando retreated, 
returned to their former position. A treaty was at length 
concluded, leaving things precisely as they were, and in which, 
as Colonel Collins remarks, nothing was mentioned about the 
retreat of the Caffers from the disputed territory. In a report 
made to government by the landdrost Maynier, respecting the 
causes of this war, he observes, '* that the excursions of the 
boors into Cafferland for the purpose of hunting, the trade 
carried on between them and the Caffers, and the improper 
treatment which the latter had experienced from the former 
when in their service, were the principal occasions of the 

rupture:):." 

•^Barrow, vol. i. p. 122. — CoUins's MS. 
f Thompson, vol. ii. 339. 

t Collins's MS. (Supplement). — Mr. Maynier was alive in 1824, and, I 
believe, then furnished the Commissioners of Inquiry with some valuable 



BABL MACARTNEY APPOINTED GOVERNOR* 289 

In 1795, the colony was captured by the British arms ; and 
the boors of the Graaff-Reinet district, having in the following 
year driven away their new magistrate, Mr. Bresler, the whole 
of the eastern province was thrown into a state of the utmost 
anarchy. Some of the Caffer chiefs were instigated by the 
colonists to attack the British troops who had been sent down 
by Sir James Craig to maintain order. Many of the Hotten- 
tots, as has been already noticed, availing themselves of the 
crisis, rose against their masters, and prevailed on the Cafifer 
clans of the Zureveld to join them in plundering and driving 
out the frontier boors, who were thus caught in the net of 
mischief they had themselves spread ; and devastation and 
bloodshed continued to prevail for several years, during which 
much misery and many barbarities were reciprocally inflicted 
by both parties. 

Such was the state of affairs on the eastern jfrontier in 1797, 
when Earl Macartney assumed the government, and Mr. Barrow 
was sent on a mission to Cafferland, of which he has given so 
interesting an account in his able work on the colony. The 
policy of the British Government towards the native tribes at 
this period was unqestionably characterised by a spirit of justice 
and benevolence. The firm repression by Sir James Craig oi 
an audacious attempt by the boors of Bruintjes-hoogt^ to obtain 
permanent possession of the country on the Kat and Koonap 
rivers*; the testimony of Mr. Barrow on that subject; and 



information respecting the state of the frontier in former days. It is to this 
gentleman that Mr. Bigge refers in the following passage. *^ The habits ot 
indiscriminate pursuit of the natives which the Dutch colonists of the frontier 
had contracted, and the interest which they all felt in the success of their 
expeditions, materially tended to weaken the efforts of the Government ; and it 
is stated by a gentleman who filled the office of landdrost of the district oi 
Graaff-Reinet, that the character of the veld-commandants, to whose discretion 
and guidance the expeditions of the armed boors were committed, necessarily 
rendered their power liable to much abuse. In his endeavours to substitute r. 
more lenient system, this individual experienced great opposition ; and it wa& 
the declared opinion of the colonists> that the establishment of peaceable 
relations with the native tribes was impossible.'' — Report, dated January 28 
1830, p. 3. Parliamentary Papers for 1830, No. 584. 
• Bkurrow, voL i. p. 123. 



290 SETTLEMENT OF THE EASTERN BOUNDARY* 

the tone of Lord Macartney's proclamation of July 14, 1798, 
in establishing a fixed boundary for the colony, afford satisfac- 
tory evidence of the enlightened sentiments by which those 
Governors were actuated. But some great and lamentable 
mistakes were also then committed. The unjust and mischie- 
vous policy was adopted of treating with one Caffer chief instead 
of those who were far more directly interested in the question 
of boundaries ; and this, notwithstanding that Gaika, while he 
stated truly enough that he was the chief first in rank on the 
frontier (for he was secondary to Hinza in the Amakosa tribe), 
carefully informed Mr. Barrow at the same time that those who 
held possession of tracts of country west of the Great Fish 
River, '< were chiefs as well as himself, and entirely independent 
of him*." No consideration was had to the claims of the 
Caffer chiefs in the Zureveld, who absolutely refused to accede 
to the treaty with Gaika or to leave the country f , which they 
considered, and not without good reason, as their own both by 
purchase and conquest. Still less consideration appears to have 
been given to the yet more indisputable rights of the aborigines 
of the soil, the Ghonaquas, and other Hottentot hordes, to 
whom had originally belonged the large tract of country usurped 
so unscrupulously by Governor Plettenberg in 1778. The 
limits then assigned to the colony were now reclaimed with- 
out qualification by the proclamation of Earl Macartney. 

For the details of the policy pursued towards the Gaffers for 
the twelve years which followed Mr. Barrow's embassy to Gaika, 
I must refer to the works of that writer and of Lichtenstein, 
and to the more recent publications of Thompson J, Bannister§, 
and Kay ||. The Gunuquebi clan, under Kongo, kept possession 
of the fastnesses of the Zureberg and the adjacent country to 
the mouths of the Bushman and Sunday rivers. Islambi, who 



• Barrow, vol. i. p. 146. 

t lb. vol. i. p. 404.— ColKns's Ma 

t Vol. ii. p. 341. 

§ See Appendix, and Vanderkemp's Correspondence, passim. 

}| See pp. 249—253. 



'war with the caffers. 291 

was at war with Gaika, had also crossed the Great Fish River 
and fixed himself in the Zureveld. Their alliance with the 
insurgent Hottentots has been alread/ mentioned. With the 
boors they were sometimes at war, and sometimes living in 
precarious truce. 

At length, in 1811, it was determined by the Colonial 
Government to drive the whole of the Caffers beyond the 
Great Fish River, and a large force of military and of burgher 
militia was assembled for that purpose, under the command of 
Colonel Graham. Some incidents of that campaign have been 
already related in the account of the slaughter of Landdrost 
Stockenstrom on the Zureberg. Mr. Brownlee mentions that 
the Caffers evinced extreme reluctance to leave a country 
which they had occupied the greater part of a century, and 
which they considered as by right their own. The hardship, 
also, of abandoning their crops of maize and millet, which were 
at the time nearly ripe, and the loss of which would subject 
them to a whole year of famine, was urgently pleaded *. But 
all remonstrance was vain : not a day's delay was allowed them. 
They were driven out with considerable slaughter, and in a 
spirit of stem severity, which, although partly attributable, no 
doubt, to the provocation given by the treacherous slaughter 
of Stockenstrom and his followers, admits but of partial pallia- 
tion. I have now lying before me a journal, kept during that 
campaign by my friend Mr. Hart, who was then a lieutenant 
in the Cape Regiment. From this it appears that the Caffers 
were shot indiscriminately, women as well as men, wherever 
found, and even though they offered no resistance. It is true 
that Mr. Hart says the females were killed unintentionally y 
because the boors could not distinguish them from men among 
the bushes ; and so, to make sure work, they shot all they could 
reach ! But admitting the excuse alleged (though there are 
many cases recorded where it appears utterly inadmissible)^ 
what will the English reader think of the following entry :-- 

• Thompson, vol. K. p. 341 . — Kay, p. 253. 

O 2 



292 TREATMENT OF A CAFFER ENVOY. 

" Sunday, January 12, 1812. At noon, Commandant Stolid 
went out with two companies, to look for Slambie (Islambi), 
but saw nothing of him ; they met only with a few Gaffers, 
men and women, the most of whom they shot. About sunset, 
five Gaffers were seen at a distance, one of whom came to the 
camp with a message from Slambie's son, requesting permission 
to remain until the harvest was over, and that then he (if his 
father would not) would go over the Great Fish River quietly. 
This messenger would not give any information respecting 
Slambie, but said he did not know where he was. However, 
after having been put in irons, and fastened to a wheel, with 
a riem (leathern thong) about his neck, he said that if the 
commando went with him before daylight, he would bring them 
upon 200 Gaffers all asleep." Now, what is to be thought of 
this attempt to force an envoy, by the terror of a violent death, 
to betray his chief into the hands of his mortal enemies I What 
would be the outcry throughout all Europe, if any flag of truce 
were so treated between civilised nations? I cannot allow 
myself to believe that men of the high character of Golonel 
Graham, or Golonel (then Gaptain) Fraser, could be privy to 
such an execrable transaction. Yet we find Gaptain Fraser in 
command of the party (" 303 boors, 27 free Hottentots, 4 
subalterns, 5 Serjeants, 6 bugles, and 120 rank and £le of the 
Gape Regiment") sent out with this Gaffer envoy, at two 
o'clock next morning, to search for Islambi. But it is a 
lamentable truth that in our treatment generally of savage 
nations, all respect for common honesty, justice, or humanity, 
appears to be oflen utterly forgotten, even by men otherwise 
generous, kind, and sensitively honourable. 

The reader will not be sorry to learn that the native envoy 
did not betray his chief. After three days' search, the party 
returned without success, bringing back with them the Gaffer 
captive, of whose fate I find no farther notice. Many details 
are given in this journal which illustrate in a very striking 
manner the misery inflicted by dispossessing these clans in 
the summary and violent mode pursued, and just before their 



EXPULSION OF THE CAFfERS. ^93 

harvest. Parties of troops were employed for several weeks 
in burning down the huts and hamlets of the natives, and in 
destroying their fields of maize and millet by trampling them 
down with large herds of cattle ; and at length the Caifers were 
forced over the Great Fish River, to the number of 20,000 
souls, leaving behind them a large portion of their cattle, 
captured by the troops, many of their comrades and females 
shot in the thickets, and not a few of the old and diseased^ 
whom they were unable to carry along with them, to perish of 
hunger or become a prey to the hyaenas. The chief Kongo, 
who was dying of a mortal disease, and unable to rise from his 
mat, was, as I have already mentioned, butchered by a party of 
boors, under circumstances of great barbarity. 

Thp unhappy policy which induced the Colonial Government 
to adopt the harsh measure of forcibly and suddenly expelling 
the Gaffers from the Zureveld, instead of taking means to effect 
the same object in a just and amicable manner, or, better still, 
of pursuing some rational plan for their civilization ; the strange 
prejudices (to use a gentle term) which led successive Gover- 
nors to prohibit, up to 1816, the missionaries from attempting 
their conversion to Christianity ; and the generally mischievous 
and crooked course followed in regard to those tribes, are fairly 
and mildly stated by Mr. Bannister in his ** Huinane Policy *." 
Referring the reader to that work for many authentic details 
and appropriate observations upon these and other kindred 
topics, I shall merely observe that by the policy pursued the 
Gunuquebi and other clans, who might easily have been rendered 
peaceful friends (as they are now), and ere long valuable subjects, 
were rendered, by their cruel removal on the eve of harvest, 
and by the wanton slaughter of their dying chief, for many 
years our bitter foes, and a destructive scourge to our frontierf . 

The attempt of the insurgent boors in 1815 to league 
themselves with the Caffers, opened the eyes of the Colonial 



• Appendix, pp. ccxxi., ccxxvii. 

t Thompsou, vol ii. p. 342.— Philip, vol i. p. 254.— Kay, p. 255. 



294 WAR AMONG THE CAFFERS. 

Government in some measure to the error of tlie policy they 
had so long maintained; and, in 1816, Mr. Williams, a mis- 
sionary sent out hy the London Missionary Society, was 
allowed to proceed into Cafferland. He fixed his residence at 
the Kat River, in the territory of the chief Gaika» where he 
laboured with indefatigable zeal and with very encouraging 
success until his death in 1818. His valuable services, and 
the interesting circumstances attending his decease, have been 
recorded by Dr. Philip *. 

In 1817, Lord Charles Somerset held a conference with 
Gaika in the vicinity of Mr. Williams's residence, for the 
purpose of renewing former treaties, and fixing a mode ci 
restraining or punishing Gaffer depredations on the colony. 
The mistaken policy of treating Gaika as the king or sovereign 
of the Amakosa, and paying no regard to Islambi, who was- 
present, or to any other of the leading chiefs, who disclaimed 
allegiance to Gaika, was here again pursued, and contributed, 
there is little doubt, to increase the jealousies and heart-burnings 
that already existed among the frontier chiefs -)-• 

The following year an internal war broke out among the 
Amakosa clans, and a powerful confederacy was formed against 
Gaika, whose natural arrogance appears to have been much 
increased by the exclusive distinction paid to him by the 
Colonial Government. He had given deadly ofifence, by varioiiB 
acts of tyranny and insult, to almost all the other principal 
chiefs of the tribe, and more especially by forcibly carrying oflF 
the wife of one of Islambi's principal counsellors. In the league 
against him were associated his uncles Islambi and Jaluhsa, 
Habanna, Makanna, young Kongo, chief of the Gunuquebi, and 
Hinza, the principal chief of the Amakosa, to whom in rank 
Gaika was only secondary. In a battle which was fought near 
the river Deb^, Gaika's party were totally routed ; most of his 
old counsellors and principal captains were slain, and he was 



* Researches, vol. ii. p. 163. 

f Thompson, vol. ii. p, 343.— Philip, il 174.— Kay, pp. 153, 255. 



INVASION OF CAFFERLAND. 295 

driyen to the Koonap riyer^ with the loss of a large number of 
cattle. The yictors did not press him ^trther, nor was any 
aggression committed by them upon the colonial territory, of 
which the Great Fish Riyer was then the fixed boundar}% 
There was therefore not the slightest pretext for our inter- 
ference, the quarrel being entirely upon matters proper to the 
politics of the tribe, with which the colony had no concern *, 

But unhappily the Colonial Goyemment thought otherwise. 
They had declared Gaika the paramount chief or king of 
Cafferlandy and soyereign it was determined he should be. In 
pursuance of this extraordinary policy, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Brereton was directed to march into Cafferland in the close of 
1818, with a powerful force of military and burgher militia. 
The associated chiefe, of whom Islambi was the ostensible 
head, deprecated this unproyoked inyasion, declaring they were 
anxious to remain at peace with the colony, but at the same 
time refusing to submit to Gaika, whom they had conquered. 
The expedition, without any regard to this remonstrance, 
inarched forward* The inhabitants were attacked in their 
hamlets, plimdered of their cattle, and slaughtered or driven 
into the woods. 1 was assured by intelligent officers who 
seryed on this expedition, that not less than 23,000 head of 
cattle were carried off from the territories of the confederate 
clans f, of which 9,000 were allotted to Gaika to reimburse 
him for his losses, and the remainder were brought into the 
colony, and partly distributed among the frontier boors, partly 
sold to defray the expenses of the expedition \ . 

The effects of this policy soon became apparent. The great 
majority of the Amakosa clan had not only been wantonly 
exasperated by an unproyoked inyasion, but were absolutely 
rendered desperate by thousands of them being depriyed of 
their only means of subsistence. Under such circumstances 

• Thompson, vol. ii. p. 345. — Philip, vol. i. p. 257. — Kay, p. 257. 

-|- This estimate does not include several thousand head captured by a com- 
mando the preceding year under Major Frascr, and which my Caffer friend, 
John Tzatzoe, says were taken by mistake from Gaika's subjects. 

X Thompson, vol. iL p. 345.— Kay, p. 258. 



296 THE PROPHET MAKANKA. 

it would have been very surprising if they had remained quiet. 
And accordingly, no sooner had the invading force retired, and 
the burgher militia been disbanded, than the Caffers began to 
pour themselves into the colony in numerous bands, eager for 
plunder and revenge. Retaliation was easy and immediate. 
The frontier districts, as far as the vicinity of Algoa Bay, were 
overrun. Several detached military posts were captured ; Cap- 
tain Gethin, Lieutenant Hunt, and numerous small parties and 
patrols of British troops were cut off. The boors were driven 
from the Zureveld. Theopolis was repeatedly attacked with 
great fury, and saved only by the bravery of the Hottentot 
inhabitants *, Enon was plundered and burned ; and the 
cattle of the farmers along the Great Fish River and the 
adjoining districts were in many places carried off. " In these 
attacks," says Mr. Brownlee, the " Caffers showed a determined 
resolution to recover their cattle; yet, although they killed 
many of the soldiers and colonists, they did not evince that 
blood-thirsty disposition which is common to most barbarians. 
When they could get away the cattle without being opposed, 
they made no attempt on the lives of the inhabitants t-" 

The councils of the confederated Caffer chiefs were at this 
time directed by an extraordinary individual generally known 
in the colony by the title of Links (or the Lefthanded), but 
whose native name was Makanna. He had been originally a 
Caffer of common rank, and without any claim to alliance with 
the line of Toguh, which, with the exception of the Kongo 
family, constitutes the noble blood of the Amakosa tribe ; but 
by his talents and address he had gradually raised himself to 
distinction. Before the present war broke out, he was in the 
habit of frequently visiting the British head quarters at Gra- 
ham's Town, and had evinced an insatiable curiosity and an 



• Philip, vol ii. p. 258. 

•j- Tliompson, vol. ii. p. 345. — Kay, p. 258. 



THE PllOPHET MAKANNA. 297 

acute intellect on such subjects as fell under his observation. 
With the military officers he talked of war, or of such of the 
mechanical arts as fell under his notice ; but his great delight 
was to converse with Mr. Vanderlingen, the chaplain, to elicit 
information in regard to the doctrines of Christianity, and to 
puzzle him in return with metaphysical subtleties or mystical 
ravings. 

Whether Makanna had acquired any distinct view of the 
Christian system seems very doubtful : but of his knowledge, 
such as it was, he made an extraordinary use. Combining 
what he had learned respecting the creation, the fall of man, 
the atonement, the resurrection, and other Christian doctrines, 
with some of the superstitious traditions of his countrymen and 
with his own wild ^cies, he framed a sort of extravagant reli- 
gious medley, and, like another Mohammed, boldly announced 
himself as a prophet and teacher directly inspired from Heaven < 
He endeavoured to throw around his obscure origin a cloud of 
religious mystery ; and called himself ^ the brother of Christ.' 
In his usual demeanour he assumed a reserved, solemn, and 
abstracted air, and kept himself aloof from observation ; but in 
addressing the people, who flocked in multitudes to hear him, 
he appeared to pour forth his soul in a flow of affecting and 
impetuous eloquence. My friend Mr. Read, the missionary, 
who visited him in Cafferland in 1816, describes his appearance 
as exceedingly imposing, and his influence both over the chiefs 
and the common people as most extraordinary. He addressed 
the assembled multitudes repeatedly in Mr. Read's presence 
with great effect : inculcating a stricter morality, and boldly 
upbraiding the most powerful chiefs with their vices. At other 
times, instructing them in Scripture history, he adduced as a 
proof of the universal deluge, the existence of immense beds 
of sea-shells on the tops of the neighbouring mountains. To 
the Missionaries he was apparently friendly, and urged them 
to fix their residence in the country under his protection ; yet 
they were puzzled by his mysterious demeanour, and shocked 

o3 



298 THE PROPHET MAKANNA. 

by his impious pretensions, and could only conclude that he 
was calculated to do much good or mischief, according as bis 
influence might be ultimately employed*. 

By degrees he gained a complete control oyer all the prin- 
cipal chiefs, with the exception of Gaika, who feared and hated 
him. He was consulted on every matter of consequence, 
received numerous gifts, collected a large body of retainers, 
and was acknowledged as a warrior-chief as well as a prophet. 
His ulterior objects were never fully developed ; but it seems 
not improbable that he contemplated raising himself to the 
sovereignty as well as to the priesthood of his nation ; and 
proposed to himself the patriotic task (for, though a religious 
impostor, he certainly was not destitute of high aspirations), 
to elevate by degrees his barbarous countrymen, both politi- 
cally and intellectually, nearer to a level with the Europeans. 
But, whatever were Makanna's more peaceful projects, the un- 
expected invasion of the country by the English troops in 1818 
diverted his enterprise into a new and more disastrous channel. 
The confederate chiefs, in turning their arms against Gaika, 
though roused by their own immediate wrongs, had acted at 
the same time under the prophet's directions ; for it was one 
of his objects to humble, if not to crush entirely, that chief, 
who was the great obstacle to his public and, perhaps personal, 
views of aggrandisement. With the English authorities he had 
assiduously cultivated terms of friendship ; and had not appa- 
rently anticipated any hostile collision with them on this occa- 
sion. But after Colonel Brereton*s devastating inroad, by which 
Makanna's followers, in common with the other confederate 
clans, had suffered most cruelly, his whole soul seems to have 
been bent upon revenging the aggressions of the colonists, and 
emancipating his country from their domination. He saw that 
this was not to be effected by mere marauding incursions, such 
as had always hitherto characterised Caffer warfare. The great 
difficulty was to concentrate the energies of his countrymen, 

• See Missionary Transactions, vol. iv. ; also Philip's Researches, vol. iL p. 163. 



BISING OF THE CAFFERS. 299 

and bring them to attempt a decisive blow ; and this he at 
length effected. By his spirit-rousing eloquence, his pretended 
revelations from Heaven, and his confident predictions of com- 
plete success, provided they would implicitly follow his counsels, 
he persuaded the great majority of the Amakosa clans, including 
some of Hinza's captains, to unite their forces for a simultaneous 
attack upon Graham's Town, the head-quarters of the British 
troops. He told them that he was sent by Uhlanga, the Great 
Spirit, to avenge their wrongs ; that he had power to call up 
from the grave the spirits of their ancestors to assist them in 
battle against the English (AmangUzi)^ whom they should 
drive, before they stopped, across the Zwartkops river and into 
the ocean ; " and then," said the prophet, " we will sit down and 
eat honey I " Ignorant of our vast resources, M akanna probably 
conceived that, this once effected, the contest was over for ever 
with the usurping Europeans. 

Having called out the warriors from the various clans, 
Makanna and Dushani the son of Islambi (the latter being, at 
least nominally, the chief captain of the host) mustered their 
army in the forests of the Great Fish River, and found them- 
selves at the head of between nine and ten thousand men. 
They then sent (in conformity with a custom held in repute 
among Caffer heroes) a message of defiance to Colonel Will- 
shire, the British commandant, announcing << that they would 
breakfast with him next morning.'' 

At the first break of dawn the warriors were arrayed for 
battle on the mountains near Graham's Town; and before 
they were led on to the assault, were addressed by Makanna 
in an animating speech, in which he is said to have assured 
them of supernatural aid in the conflict with the English, 
which would turn the hail -storm of their fire-arms into water. 
Thus excited, they were led on by their various chiefs, but all 
under the general direction of the prophet himself, and the 
chief captain, Dushdni. The English were completely asto- 
nished and taken by surprise when they appeared, soon after 
sunrise, marching rapidly over the heights which environ Gra- 



300 ATTACK ON GRAHAM*S TOWK. 

ham*8 Town ; for Colonel Willshire had so entirely disregarded 
the message sent him, considering it a mere bravado, that he 
had taken no precautions whatever, and was himself very nearly 
captured by the enemy as he was taking a morning ride with 
some of his officers. One of those officers was Captain Harding, 
who communicated to me this and many other details relating 
to these campaigns. Had the Caffers advanced by night, they 
could not have failed of easily capturing the place. 

All was now bustle and confusion in the little garrison, which 
consisted of only about three hundred and fifty European troopSf 
and a small corps of disciplined Hottentots. The place had no 
regtdar defences, and the few field-pieces which it possessed 
were not quite in readiness. The Caffers rushed on to the 
assault with their wild war-cries. They were gallantly encoun* 
tered by the troops, who poured upon them^ as they advanced 
in dense disorderly masses, a destructive fire of musketry, every 
shot of which was deadly, while their showers of assagais fell 
short or ineffective. Still, however, they advanced courageously, 
the chiefs cheering them on, almost to the muzzles of the Bri- 
tish guns ; and many of the foremost warriors were then seen 
breaking short their last assagai, to render it a stabbing weapon, 
in order to rush in upon the troops, according to Makanna's 
directions, and decide the battle in close combat. This was 
very different from their usual mode of bush-fighting, but the 
suggestion of it evinces Makanna's judgment ; for if promptly 
and boldly acted upon, it could not have failed of success. The 
great bodily strength and agility of the Caffers, as well as their 
vast superiority in numbers, would have enabled them to over- 
power the feeble garrison in a few minutes. 

At this critical moment, and while other columns of the 
Caffer army were pushing on to assail the place in flank and 
rear, the old Hottentot Captain Boezak, who happened that 
instant to arrive at Graham's Town with a party of his men, 
rushed intrepidly forward to meet the enemy. To old Boezak 
most of the Caffer chiefs and captains were personally known ; 
and he was, also, familiar with their fierce appearance and 



DEFEAT OF THE GAFFERS. 301 

fdrious shouts. SingliDg out the boldest of those, who, now in 
advance, were encouraging their men to the final onset, Boezak 
and his followers, buffalo-hunters from Theopolis, and among 
the best marksmen in the colony, levelled in a few seconds a 
number of the most distinguished chiefs and warriors. Their 
onset was for a moment checked. The British troops cheered, 
and renewed with alacrity their firing. At the same instant 
the field-pieces, now brought to bear upon the thickest of the 
enemy, opened a most destructive fire of grape-shot. Some of 
the warriors rushed madly forward and hurled their spears at 
the artillerymen ; but it was in vain. The front ranks were 
mown down like grass. Those behind recoiled; wild panic 
and irretrievable rout ensued. Makanna, after vainly attempt- 
ing to rally them, accompanied their flight. They were pur- 
sued but a short way; for the handful of cavalry durst not 
follow them into the broken ravines where they precipitated 
their flight. The slaughter was great for so brief a conflict. 
About fourteen hundred Caffer warriors strewed the field of 
battle ; and many more perished of their wounds before they 
reached their own country. 

This formidable attempt, altogether unprecedented in Caffer 
warfare, alarmed the Colonial Government, and awakened all 
its vengeance.. The burgher militia throughout the whole 
extent of the colony were called out, and marched to the 
eastern frontier, to assist in chastising the < savages.' Colonel 
Willshire, collecting all the disposable British and Hottentot 
troops, advanced into the enemy's country in one direction, 
while Landdrost Stockenstrom, with a burgher commando of 
a thousand horsemen, swept it in another. The villages of the 
hostile clans were burnt, their cattle carried off, their fields of 
maize and millet trodden down, and the inhabitants of all 
classes, driven into the thickets, were there bombarded with 
^ape-shot and congreve-rockets. Dispirited by their late 
failure, defeated in every attempt at resistance, their women 
and helpless old people often slaughtered indiscriminately 
with the armed men, their principal chiefs, Islambi, Kongo, 



302 8URRENDEB OF MAKANNA. 

Habanna, — above all, their prophet, Makanna,— denounced 
as ' outlaws,' and the inhabitants threatened with utter exter- 
mination if they did not deliver them up < dead or alive ;* the 
Caffer people jet remained faithful to their chie&. Among 
the multitudes now driven to despair, and perishing for want, 
not one was found willing to earn the high reward offered for 
their apprehension by the conquerors. 

The course adopted by Makanna under these circumstances 
was remarkable, and gives a higher idea of his character than 
any other part of his history that has become known to us. 
He resolved to surrender himself as a hostage for his country ; 
and I am fortunately enabled to give the authentic .particulars 
from notes taken at the time by Captain Stockenstrom, the 
officer into whose hands he delivered himself up. 

Captain Stockenstrom was encamped with his division of 
the commando on the high ground east of Trumpeter's Drif^ 
on the Great Fish River. The rain had continued to fall 
in torrents for several days ; and the Caffers, availing them- 
selves of weather unfisivourable to fire-arms, had repeatedly 
shown themselves in great force, as if contemplating a des* 
perate attack, and rushing forward with their usual war-shout; 
but on being received with a brisk fire, they had as quickly 
retired to the wooded ravines. In the afternoon of the 15th 
of August, 1819, two Ghonaqua women came to the camp, 
and, asking to speak with the commander, informed Captain 
Stockenstrom that they were sent by the chief Makanna to 
sue for peace ; and that he would himself come and treat for 
terms, provided his life and liberty were guaranteed. Captain 
Stockenstrom replied that he would pledge his solemn word 
that the chief's life should be safe ; but that he could offer no 
guarantee for his liberty, because one of the principal objects 
of the expedition, and a strict part of his own instructions, 
was to take Makanna and some others < dead or alive.' The 
women departed with this message ; and Captain Stockenstrom 
was disposed to ascribe their errand to purposes of espionage 
rather than to any serious intention on Makanna's part to 



SPEECH OF makakka's pagati. 309 

surrender, when, to his snrprise, that chief walked unattended 
into the camp next day, with an air of calm pride and self- 
possession which commanded involuntarj respect. It appeared 
that the message sent hj the women had been correctlj 
delivered — ^ but,' said the African chie^ with a magnanimity 
which would have done honour to a Greek or Roman patriot, 
* people say that I ha?e occasioned the war: let me see 
whether my delivering myself up to the conquerors will restore 
peace to my country.' — He appeared to be greatly disconcerted, 
however, when he found that he was not speaking to the 
'principal man,' and that Captain Stockenstrom possessed no 
authority to settle terms of peace. Next day Colonel Will- 
shire, then holding the chief command, passed with the main 
body of the troops, and carried Makanna along with him. 
What follows is given from Captain Stockenstrom's notes, 
which he kindly placed in my possession in 1825. 

** A few days afterwards, a small body of Caffers were seen 
at the edge of a thicket near Colonel Willshire's camp, who 
made signs that they desired a parley. The Colonel, attended 
by another officer and myself, having moved towards them 
unarmed, two Caffers approached, and proved to be, the one of 
them Islambi's, and the other Makanna's, chief councillors 
(jiogctti). They were, I think, as noble-looking men, and as 
dignified in their demeanour, as any I have ever beheld. 
After a few questions and answers relative to the disposal of 
Makanna, (who by this time had been sent into the Colony,) 
and as to the prospects of an accommodation, the friend of the 
captive chief delivered himself in the following terms — in so 
manly a manner, with so graceful an attitude, and with so 
much feeling and animation, that the bald translation which 
I am able to furnish from my hasty and imperfect notes, can 
afford but a very faint and inadequate idea of his eloquence. 

** * The war,' said he, ^ British chiefs, is an unjust one ; for 
you are striving to extirpate a people whom you forced to take 
up arms. When our fathers, and the fathers of the Boors 



304 SPEECH OF MAKAKNA's PAGATr. 

{Amabulu) first settled in the Zureveld, they dwelt together 
in peace. Their flocks grazed on the same hills ; their herds- 
men smoked together out of the same pipes ; they were hrothers 
—until the herds of the Amakosa increased so as to make 
the hearts of the Boors sore. What those covetous men 
could not get from our fathers for old huttons, they took by 
force. Our fathers were men ; they loved their cattle ; their 
wives and children lived upon milk; they fought for their 
property. They hegan to hate the colonists, who coveted 
their all, and aimed at their destruction. 

« < Now, their kraals and our fathers* kraals were separate: 
The boors made commandoes on our fathers. Our fathers 
drove them out of the Zureveld; and we dwelt there, because 
we had conquered it. There we were circumcised ; there we 
married wives ; and there our children were bom. The white 
men hated us, but could not drive us away. When there was 
war, we plundered you. When there was peace, some of our 
bad people stole ; but our chiefs forbade it. Your treacherous 
friend, Gaika, always had peace with you ; yet, when his 
people stole, he shared in the plunder. Have your patroles 
ever found cattle taken in time of peace, runaway slaves, 
or deserters, in the kraals of our chiefs ? Have they ever 
gone into Graika's country without finding such cattle, such 
slaves, such deserters, in Gaika's kraals ? But he was your 
friend ; and you wished to possess the Zureveld. You came 
at last like locusts *. We stood : we could do no more. You 
said, * go over the Fish River — that is all that we want.* 
We yielded, and came here. 

"*We lived in peace. Some bad people stole, perhaps; 
but the nation was quiet — the chiefs were quiet. Gaika stole 
— his chiefs stole — his people stole. You sent him copper; 
you sent him beads ; you sent him horses— on which he rode 
to steal more. To us you sent only commandoes ! 



Alluding to Colonel Graham's campaign in 1811 — 1812. 



SPEECH OF MAKANNA*S PAGATI. 305 

** ^ We quarrelled with Gaika about grass — no business of 
yours. You sent a commando* — you took our last cow— 
you left only a few calves, which died for want, along with 
our children. You gave half the spoil to Gaika ; half you 
kept yourselves. Without milk,— our corn destroyed, — we 
saw our wives and children perish — we saw that we must 
ourselves perish ; we followed, therefore, the tracks of our 
cattle into the colony. We plundered, and we fought for our 
lives. We found you weak; we destroyed your soldiers. 
We saw that we were strong ; we attacked your 'head- 
quarters t : — and if we had succeeded, our right was good, 
for you began the war. We &iled — and you are here. 
: " * We wish for peace ; we wish to rest in our huts ; we 
wish to get milk for our children ; our wives wish to till the 
land. But your troops cover the plains, and swarm in the 
thickets, where they cannot distinguish the man from the 
woman, and shoot all j:. 

" * You want us to submit to Gaika. That man's face is 
fair to you, but his heart is fetlse. Leave him to himself. 
Make peace with us. Let him fight for himself — and we 
shall not call on you for help. Set Makanna at liberty ; and 
Islambi, Dushani, Kongo, and the rest will come to make 
peace with you at any time you fix. But if you will still 
make war, you may indeed kill the last man of us — but 
Graika shall not rule over the followers of those who think 
him a woman.' ** 

This manly remonstrance^ which affected some of those who 
heard it even to tears, had no effect in altering the destination 
of Makanna, or in obtaining a reprieve for his countrymen, 
who were still sternly called upon to deliver up those who had 
been outlawed by the Cape Government. All efforts, however, 
to get possession of the persons of the other chiefs were 



• Colonel Brereton's Expedition in 1818. 

•f" Graham^B Town. — See Thompson, vol. i. p. 63. 

X Thompson, vol. ii. p. 347. 



306 TRATMBNT OF MAKANKA. 

unavailing *• After plundering the country, therefore, of all 
the cattle that could yet he found, and leaving devastation and 
misery hehind them, our < christian commando' retired into 
the colony ; without gaining the object for which the war 
was professedly commenced, — ^but with an additional spoil of 
about 80,000 head of cattle captured from the fEUuishingand 
despairing natives f • 

Meanwhile, the treatment and £ite of Makanna were briefly 
as follows. By order of the Colonial Government, he was 
forwarded by sea from Algoa Bay to Cape Town; there 
confined as a prisoner in the common gaol ; and finally, with 
others of his countrymen, guilty of no other offence than 
fighting for their native land against its civilised invaders, he 
was condemned to be imprisoned for life on Robben Island — 
the Botany Bay of the Cape — a spot appropriated for the 
custody of convicted felons, rebellious slaves, and other 
malefiictors, doomed to work in irons in the slate quarries. 
After remaining about a year in this wretched place, 
Makanna, with a few followers, Caffers and slaves, from among 
the inmates of that house of bondage, over whom he had 
established his characteristic ascendancy, rose upon the guard, 

* An instance of Coffer magnanimity related by Captun Stockenstrom is ^dl 
worth preserving here. 

Captain Stockenstrom, at the time of the commando against Makuina, had 
once the misfortune, while walking in the rear, to be taken suddenly ilL He 
was thus, unobserved of his men, left behind, unable to moye and ignorant of 
the way. He expected that as soon as he was discovered by the enemy he 
would be instantly put to death. While in this anxious predicament he 
observed a solitary Caffer approaching him, armed with a bundle of assagais. 
As soon as the Caffer (who was one of the enemy, a warrior of Islambi^s) 
ascertained his case, without saying a word, he laid down his ingubo (mantle) 
and his arms at his feet,' and darted off naked at full speed. Captain Stocken- 
strom could form no idea what was the man*s intention, until, in about an 
hour, to his agreeable surprise, he saw him return, accompanied by a boor on 
horseback with a led horse. The Caffer having resumed his ingubo and assagais, 
suddenly disappeared in the jungle ; and Captain S. rode to rejoin his party, to 
whom the magnanimous Caffer had thus given notice of their landdro«t*s 
situation. After peace was concluded, Captain S. made every exertion in hii 
power to ascertain the name of his deliverer, but without effect ; nor did he 
ever come forward to claim the reward that Captain S. publicly announced his 
desire to bestow for such noble conduct in an enemy. 

t Thompson, voLii. p. 347 — Kay, 266, 



DEATH OF MAKANKA. 307 

overpowered and disarmed them ; then, s&nng a boat, he 
placed his adherents in it, and wonld, in all probability, have 
effected his escape with them, bnt bj some mischance the 
overloaded pinnace, in which he was the last man to embark, 
was npset, in attempting to land on the iron-bonnd coast, and 
the unfortunate African chief was drowned. Several of his 
companions who escaped relate that Makanna clnng for some 
time to a rock, and that his deep sonorous voice was heard 
loadlf cheering on those who were straggling with the billows, 
until he was swept off and engulfed bj the raging surf*. 

Mr. Kaj, who lately resided several years in Cafferland, 
states, in his recent work, that such was the universal belief 
in Makanna's supernatural powers and character among his 
ooontrymen, that many of them would give no credit to the 
aoeounts of his death, and still confidently expected his return 
among them f. 

Upon the treatment of the Caffer people throughout the 
whole of these transactions, it would be difficult to comment 
in calm language; and any comments, indeed, would be 
superfluous. The facUy established beyond dispute by so 
many respectable witnesses, cannot &il to speak to the heart 
of every candid reader. As regards the chief Makanna, it 
is melancholy to reflect how valuable an instrument for 
promoting the civilization of the Caffer tribes was apparently 
lost by the nefimous treatment and indirect destruction of 
tiiat extraordinary barbarian, whom a wiser and more generous 
policy might have rendered a grateful ally to the colony, and 
a permanent bene&ctor to his own countrymen. 



* The stoiy of Makanna, originally published by me in the New Monthly 
Magazine for January, 1827, has fiumished an anonymous imter with the 
subject of a romance, which has just appeared. The author displays coneiderable 
powers of imagination and command of language, but I am constrained by a 
r^jard for truth to add, that, independently of the strange absurdities of the plot, 
and of the liberties taken with history and geography, the descriptions of South. 
African scenery and manners ^given in this work do not bear eyen a remote 
resemblance to the reality. 

-f* Researches in Caffhuria, pp. 44, 265. 



808 FURTHER SURRENDER OF GAFFER TERRITORY. 

The war was finished hj an act quite in character with the 
mode in which it had heen conducted. It was commenced upon 
the pretext of supporting our ally Gaika— it ended in a con- 
vention hy which that chief was forced to surrender one of the 
finest provinces of the Amakosa territory. The Caffers, friends 
as well as foes, and even the remnant of the Ghonaqua tribe^ 
who, after heing driven over the Great Fish River in 1812, 
had settled in the country east of it, under Gaika's protection, 
were now forced once more to move, and to retire beyond the 
Keisi and Chumi rivers. By this iniquitous act nearly 3,000 
square miles of country were added to the colonial territory, 
already far too extensive, while the native inhabitants were 
driven back upon a population for which, in their present 
pastoral state, the land is greatly too narrow. This convention 
was called a treaty, indeed, in the Cape Gazette ; but it was 
such a treaty as takes place when the wolf and the lamb are 
the contracting parties. It was little wonder, therefore, that 
poor Gaika, when speaking to Mr. Brownlee of his obligation^ 
to the Colonial Government, should exclaim — " But when I 
look at the large extent of fine country that has been taken 
from me, I am compelled to say that, though protected, lam 
rather oppressed hy my protectors*.^* The country thns 
acquired was at first termed " the Neutral Ground." Its 
subsequent appropriation we shall speedily advert to. 

During the two following years, 1820 and 1821, the eastern 
frontier remained in a much more peaceful state than, under the 
circumstances, could reasonably have been expected. Several 
of the Caffer clans, who had been plundered of all, or nearly all, 
their cattle (more than 50,000 head having been taken from 
them during the two preceding years), were suffering all the 
severities of famine ; yet they beheld their ancient domain of 
the Zureveld planted by a British population, and remained at 
peace. A few herds of cattle were stolen from the banks of 
the Great Fish River, by small parties of marauders, and in 

• Thompson, vol. j' d. 348. See also Rose'8 Four Years in Southern 
Africa, pp. 75, 81. 



LORD CHARLES SOMERSET'S FRONTIER POLICY. 309 

two or three io8tances the herdsmen who guarded them were 
slain. That was the amount of their cupidity and hlood- 
thirstiness*, which, from men whose wives and children were 
starving for want of the milch cows which our commandoes 
had carried off, was surely not so very * enormous ' as some of 
the settlers have been prone to consider it. 

The frontier policy, during Sir Rufane Donkin's administra- 
tion, was maintained upon the old system which he found 
established ; but, so far as was consistent with the irremedial 
defects of that system, it seems to have been practically con- 
ducted with tolerable efficiency, as regards the defence of the 
colony, and without any practical aggression towards the native 
tribes. 

In the close of 1821, Lord Charles Somerset resumed the 
Government, and at once overturned, as has been already 
noticed, all Sir Rufane's arrangements in the eastern districts. 
The policy on the Caffer frontier speedily assumed the character 
of insolent and irritating tyranny towards the natives, while at 
the same time it left the British settlers almost without protec- 
tion from the vengeful retaliation which it provoked f • In 
March, 1822^ three months after Lord Charles's return, while 
the Caffers were in a state of perfect peace with the colony, the 
commanding officer on the frontier received orders to despatch a 
party to seize Gaika at his own residence, and bring him captive 
into the colony. This act of outrage fortunately failed in the 
execution, Gaika narrowly escaping by dressing himself in the 
mantle of one of his wives, and pretending to be engaged in some 
female occupation. But the perfidious attempt produced great 
excitement and suspicion of our designs, and, had it been suc- 
cessful, would almost inevitably have occasioned another Caffer 
war, which, indeed, appears to have been the result aimed at X' 

• See Commissioners* Report, dated Dec. 24, 1825.— Pari. Papers for 
1827, No. 371, p. 92. 

+ See Memorial of the Albany Settlers to Earl Bathurst, dated March 1 0, 
1823.— Pari. Papers for 1827, No. 444, p. 11. 

^ Snch at least was the universal opinion on the frontier, where I was at 
that period residing. Lord Charles, when called upon by his Majesty's Com* 



810 LORD CHARLES SOMERSET'S 

Towards the close of the same year, his lordship sent home 
a despatch to Earl Bathurst, representing that the principal 
Caffer chiefe had entered into a combination to attack the 
colony, and were then making preparations for a formidable 
irruption. At the moment this statement was written, there 
were lying on the governor's table communications from Colonel 
Scott, the frontier commandant, and from Mr. Thomson, the 
Government agent in Cafferland, stating that the Caffer chiefe 
were perfectly tranquil, and that the rumour which had been 
industriously raised in Graham's Town respecting their hostile 
intentions was utterly groundless. Nevertheless, the governor 
sent home his deceptive and fallacious despatch, and gained his 
object, too, by it — namely, a large augmentation of the colonial 
military force, and through that means the progressive steps of 
a majority, a lieutenant-colonelcy, and ultimately the chief 
command on the frontier for his son, then Captain Somerset*. 

In the course of 1823, Lord Charles, by a variety of dexterous 
manoeuvres^ which it is not my present purpose to detail, had 
in a great measure accomplished his views in regard to the 
promotion of his sons, and Major Henry Somerset attained the 
chief command on the frontier. In the meanwhile his lord* 
ship's policy towards the Caffers had once more produced its 
inevitable effects. Provoked, goaded, plundered, often without 



missioners to reply to the complaintB of the Albany Settlers to Earl Badmnt, 
upon this, among many other injurious acts, peremptorily denied all knowled^ 
of the transaction. " The seiang of Gaika," he says, '* I never heard of until 
I read it in this tissue of falsehood/* And in the same emphatic style did hk 
lordship condescend to meet the other grave complaints of that memorial :— 
" Par. 4— This is a gratuitous falsehood;'' " Par. 6— The 7th clause is a 
gratuitous falsehood ;"•' and so on. But what shall be said of the assertiom 
of Lord Charles Somerset, when I add, that when the Commissioners after- 
wards discovered the letter in his own hand -writing at Graham's Town, 
directing this attempt upon Gaika, he boldly defended the measure, and only 
expressed his regret that it had not succeeded ! (See Pari. Papers for 1827, 
No. 371, pp. 39, 40, 43, 92, and No. 444, p. 13.) Colonel Bird has published 
extracts from other letters by his lordship, proving that the whole a£bir wtt 
planned by himself; for which see Col. B.'s pamphlet already referred to, p. ▼• 
• For the full details and proofs of these disreputable intrigues, I must refer 
to the pamphlet of Sir Rufane Donkin, already mentioned, pp. 80 — 83 {8ec(md 
edition), and to that of Colonel Bird, pp. 4 — 8. The unnecessary augmentation 
of force thus obtained, and for such objects, cost the colony, as Colonel Bird 
states, from 3,000^ to 4,000/. per annum. 



FRONTIER POLICY. 311 

caase^ and the innocent punished for the guilty, they had 
renewed their retaliatory and predatory incursions*. This 
afforded a plausihle pretext for a firesh campaign by the young 
commandant. Accordingly, in the beginning of December, 
1823, Major Somerset, with a strong force of military and 
burgher militia, suddenly attacked the kraal, or viUage, of 
Makomo, the son of Gaika, at the source of the Kat River, 
and after slaughtering as many of the natives as he judged 
fitting, carried off 7,000 head of cattle. No resistance appears 
to have been made, for the official account states that not a 
single man of the colonial force was hurt. I learned from other 
authentic sources, that a considerable number of women and 
children were also shot by the boors, notwithstanding the 
official orders to spare them, which Major Somerset had issued 
on this occasion f. 

Similar attacks were made with similar success on several 



* ^ From causes that we have alreadj had the honour to explain, the depre- 
dations by the Caffers were certainly much increased in the years 1 822 and 
1823 ; and we had equally to express our regret at the consequences of the 
Irregular incursions of the boors into the Caffer country, and of the attempt that 
was made to seize the person of the chief Gaika.** {Report of Commiss. of 
Inq, to Earl Bathursty Pari, Papers for 1827, No. 371, p. 92.) The 
Commissioners refer for their explanation of the * causes' of these occurrences 
to another of their valuable Reports, dated May 25, 1 825, a document which, 
for the sake of historic truth, and of justice to all concerned, it is to be hoped his 
Majesty^s Government will one day withdraw from its seclusion among the secret 
MS. anhives of the Colonial Office. 

1* The following is a brief specimen of the official account, printed in the Cape 
Government Gazette of December 20, 1823, in which this afiair is described as 
a very gallant and meritorious exploit : — *''' At day-break on the 5th, Major 
Somerset having here collected his force, passed with celerity along the ridge, 
and at daylight had the satis&ction of pouring into the centre of Makomo's kraal 
with a rapidity that at once astonished and completely overset the Caffers. A 
few assagais were thrown, but the attack was made with such vigour that little 
reMstance could be made. As many Caffers having been destroyed as it 
was thought would evince our superiority and power. Major Somerset 
stopped the slaughter, and secured the cattle, to the amount of 7,000 head, and 
had them driven to Fort Beaufort, where kraals had been previously prepared 
for them.** — After the frontier boors had received a liberal share of these cattle, 
as an indemnity for their real or pretended losses, the ' surplus * is stated by tho 
Gazette to have been returned to Makomo ^ to save the women and children of 
his people from want." But who was the arbiter as to the justice of the claims 
of the boors? — what was the ' surplus?*— and where was the court of equity 
or appeal for the Caffers ? 



312 DISTRIBUTION OF CEDED TERRITORY. 

others of the frontier chiefs. Abundance of Caffer cattle were 
obtained, and liberally distributed among the border boors, 
among whom, consequently, the young commandant soon 
acquired a degree of popularity which threw that of all his 
predecessors into the shade. Some of the Caffer chiefs may 
probably have been guilty of encouraging or conniving at the 
recent depredations of their followers on the colonists; but, 
admitting this, it cannot be denied that the provocations they 
had received might have warranted far severer retaliation*; 
and, moreover, in the summary system of redress now pursued, 
the innocent were, for the most part, made to suffer for the 
guilty, while it is a well-known fact, that many unprincipled 
colonists obtained large herds of Caffer cattle^ upon fabricated 
claims for indemnity on account of losses which they had never 
sustained. 

The allotment among the frontier boors of a large portion 
of the territory wrested from the Caffers in 1819, is a transac- 
tion which must not be passed over in silence. This tract had 
been reluctantly ceded by Gaika (so far as he had power to 
cede it), under the stipulation '< that the waters of the Koonap, 
the Kat, and the Keiskamma should thenceforth flow undis- 
turbed into the ocean ; ** that is to say, that it should remain 
a Neutral Ground, unoccupied by either Caffers or colonists. 
At a subsequent conference with Sir Rufane Donkin, however, 
Gaika (still treated as the absolute sovereign of the country) 
had given his consent that this territory should be permanently 
added to the colony, under the express condition (as I was 
informed by Mr. Brownlee, who assisted' at that conference) 
that the land should not be occupied by Cape-Dutch boors, the 
hereditary foes of the Caffers, but by British settlers. And in 
accordance with this stipulation, the lands on the Kat and 
Koonap were surveyed, by order of Sir Rufane, for the recep- 
tion of the expected Scottish emigrants (see page 138), while 



* See remark of Commissioners, in the note at page 442. — See also Bote, 
p. 74. 



DISTRIBUTIOK OF CEDKD TERRITORY. 313 

a settlement of British officers and soldiers was formed on the 
Beka and Golana, near the coast. The Scottish emigrants, 
howeyer, never arrived; the Fredencksbnrg settlement was 
mined by Lord Charles in 1822 ; and in 1824 and 1825, his 
lordship, setting, at nought alike his own stipulations and those 
of Sir Rn&ne with the Gaffers, thought fit to grant the best 
part of this fine coontrj to the finontier boors. It is a charac- 
teristic featm« of the colonial mode of dealing with the natives, 
that the treaties or conventions respecting this ' Neutral,* 
* Ceded,' < Debatable Land,' were all rerhaly so that there was 
no document to appeal to when the conditions were broken, 
eyen if there had been any court of equity to which the natives 
could appeaL Moreover, it appears very questionable whether 
all points were ever clearly understood between the parties ; 
and, finally, it is quite certain that the other principal chie& 
who were not consulted, totally deny that Gaika possessed any 
title or authority whatever to make any such cession of the 
territory of the tribe ♦. 

It is worthy of remark that the country thus granted by Lord 
Charles Somerset to the boors is the very same tract which the 
fathers of the same men had made an audacious attempt to ob- 
tain possession of thirty years before, but had been prevented 
by the manly firmness of Sir James Craig, as has been well 
recorded by Mr. Barrow f . Let us now examine what were 
the claims of the sons to obtain in 1824, what had been refused 
to their fathers in 1796. 

Nine years before, these very men, merely because the sanc- 
tions of the law had been enforced against one of them in 
defence of the native I'ace, had entered into a treasonable con- 
spiracy against the Government, and had done their utmost to 
bring in the Caffers to destroy, not by open war, but by mid- 
night massacre, the British troops stationed on the frontier; 

••8ee Thompson, vol. il p. 347; Kay, p. 266; Sir Rufiine Donkin's 
Pamphlet (second edition), p. 118; and particularly Bannister, pp. 73—84; 
and Appendix, p. cclxxii. 

f Travels in Southern Africa, vol. L p. 123. 



814 FRONTIER POLICY. 

offering the possession of the Znreveld as a bait to the barbae 
rians for their aid. Disappointed in this attempt, they had 
nevertheless rebelliously risen in arms against the British 
Govemij^ent, and were only prevented by the activity of the 
local authorities from deluging the eastern districts with blood. 
This criminal attempt had been punished by the execution of 
five of the leaders, and by awarding to a few others, scarcely 
less guilty, milder punishments, which had been subsequently 
in almost every case remitted *, 

Now, it may be urged in behalf of these men, that their con- 
duct since they received this wholesome lesson had been qui^ 
and submissive to the Government ; and that, after a period of 
nine years' probation, it would have been alike ungenerous 
and impolitic to subject them to any unfavourable distinction. 
All this I most willingly admit; and having myself resided 
three years in the midst of them, and knowing many of them 
personally, I will, in justice, say, that they were inoffensive 
neighbours to my own party, and that a considerable number 
of them are (bating their prejudices in regard to the natives) 
really well-disposed men — although there are still too many 
unprincipled ruffians among them. But the real question at 
issue is, what claim had these men, as a body — not to a gene- 
rous amnesty — ^not a just protection — but to the peculiar 
favour y to the lavish munificence of the British Government? 
What claim had they to rewards at the expense of the Caffer 
people, on whom they and their fathers had inflicted so many 
grievous wrongs, and in direct breach, moreover, of solemn 
stipulations agreed to with the Caffer chiefs ? Finally, what 
claims had the Bothmas, the Erasmuses, the Vandemests, the 
Prinsloes, the Kloppers, the De Klerks, the Bezuidenhouts, 
et hoc genus omne^ the ringleaders of the rebel peasantry in 
1815, to enormous grants of land from Government at the 
very moment when the Governor was refusing, and that with 
the most contumelious arrogance, sufficient land even for ade- 

• See Chapter V. — Also, Thompson, Philip, Bannister, Kay. 



FRONTIER POLICY. 315 

quate subsistence to the heads of parties in Albany, to gentle- 
men of rank, education and integrity, who had expended very 
considerable capital in establishing a British settlement under 
the special patronage of the British Goyernment, and several 
of whom, after spending the prime of their lives in the active 
service of their country, had sunk their whole substance in this 
enterprise * ? What claims had the most respectable of the 
Dutch- African frontier boors, almost all of them already in 
possession of competent farms, some of enormous tracts f, to 
such testimonies of the Governor's special grace, while he was 
doing his utmost to crush, and to drive from the colony in dis- 
gust, the Pigots, the Campbells, the Moodies, the Whites^ the 
Fhilipses, the Bowkers, and many other gentlemen who could 
easily be named, and the details of whose outrageous treatment 
are in my possession, and (if I am not greatly misinformed) 
also in the possession of his Majesty's Government ? 

I will state in plain terms what were the claims of these 
Border Boors. In 1824, when Lord Charles Somerset found 
that the complaints which had been forwarded to the Home 
Government against him had become too formidable to be 
treated any longer with the supercilious contempt with which 
he was at first disposed to treat them, he began to bestir him* 
self to get up from different quarters laudatory addresses, with 



* Sir Rn&ne Donkin saw the necessity of enlarging the too confined British 
locations, and in a few cases (among others in the case of my own party) had 
completed additional grants. To many other settlers he had given written or 
i^erlial promises, which he was preparing to carry into execution, when Lord 
Charles Somerset returned, and cancelled all such promises, except where they 
were already secured hy legal documents ; and to his extraordinary policy in this 
lespect Loitl Charles pertinaciously adhered, until he was forced to change his 
^stem in the h^nning of 1825.— See page 346. 

• t For instance, Berand De Klerk, residing near Somerset, and then in posses- 
sion of a tract of country extending hy measurement to 21,374 acres, and the 
greater part of which consisted of previous grants from Government, was pro- 
mised four additional places in the Ceded Territory for himself and family, 
amounting to 10,000 or 12,000 acres more. His hrother, the heemraad De 
Klerk, already in possession of 6,000 acres, was promised ahout 12,000 acres of 
Ceded Territory ; and Durand, another Somerset heemraad, already possessed 
of 12,648 acres, was promised new grants for himself and sons on the same 
munificent scale. 

p 2 



316 FRONTIER POLICY. 

a view to counterbalance at home the effect of the numerous 
heavy accusations aguinst his mal-administration. I hare 
already noticed in another place, that the Court of Justice, 
the Burgher Senate, the Boards of Landdrosts and Heemraden, 
the civil servants (with a few honourable exceptions), only 
needed a nod from his lordship to pour in their obsequious and 
adulatory addresses ; and the corn and wine boors near Cape 
Town, and the slave-holders generally (who were told that 
their only security against the Abolitionists depended on Lord 
Charles Somerset's continuance in the government) did not lag 
behind. But as the loudest complaints had come from the 
eastern frontier, it was particularly desirable to neatnilise them 
by obtaining favourable addresses from the same quarter. There 
was, moreover, a double object here ; for his lordship was then 
moving heaven and earth to obtain the permanent appointment 
of Frontier Commandant for his son. Accordingly , in August, 
1824, a memorial^ earnestly praying the Governor to use all 
his influence with the Home Government to obtain the conti- 
nuance of Major Somerset in that charge, was prepared in 
Graham's Town (by persons whose names are known to me) ; 
and being intrusted to Hans and Lodewyk Both ma, two boors 
in the confidence of the Commandant, and to the field -comets 
Erasmus and Vandernest, these men rode about day and nigbt 
to procure the signatures of their compatriots, giving out pro- 
mises of rich allotments of the Ceded Territory to all who would 
sign the memorial. Vandernest boasted to an officer of my 
acquaintance that he expected two new places, or from 6000 
to 8000 acres, in that territory, on account of his own services 
on this occasion. And their success was complete. Major 
Somerset was already highly popular (and, so far as regards 
iheir interests, deservedly popular) among this class of men. 
With a Pisgah glimpse of the * promised land,' besides, they 
were ready to sign anything that he or his father could have 
asked. Such, indeed, was the fervour of their * loyalty,' that 
had the object been to declare Lord Charles King of the Cape, 
few of them would have stickled at it — provided always there 



DISTftlBCnOX OF CZI>£3) TX3.m2T0ftT. S17 

was no rery hnmmggt peril of l«ize bund. Aopordmeir, 
the memorial was aent in witfa a ^oooIt axnr of ssuBtiiies, 
and was gnatmskj reoored hj his ExobQeacr. viKis« i^^piy 
was trinrnphandj handed ahoot amaskr them; and on my 
retnm to the frontier a few months aife i wi rds. I eaahr pvo- 
CQFed a copy <if it ♦. 

Again, in 1825, when I was mya^ on the spot;, and in the 
midst of these people, the same iutse was in the act of heing 
lepeated, in the sh^e of addresses to Lord Chaiies, in praise 
of his * beneficent, wise, and paternal goremment.' On this 
latter occasion, the lead in promotins' the * l^al addresses ' was 
taken by Mr. Mackay, the landdrost of Somerset, by De Klo^ 
and Dnrant, two of the heenuraden, and by Eiasmns, Vander- 
nest, and other nltra * loyal ' field-omnets. Van Wyk, however, 
another heemraad, a man of independent spirit, and ^o, exda- 
sire of his other merits, had, as field-commandant of the Taika, 
a principal hand in suppressing the rebellion of 1815, lefosed 
to sign or promote an address which was sent him ; and he ircu 
forthwith di»mi»9edfrom office* But for the ^ loyal and gallant 
burghers,' who signed freely, * one hundred places ' were now 
measured out and aUotted over, in the Ceded Territory west of 
the Koonap River, amounting, at the very lowest calculation, 
to fully 200,000 acres. 

* This reply, written and signed bv bis Lordship's own hand, is dated *' G<>> 
vemment House, September, 24, 1824," and is addressed " to C. F. Yandemest, 
Teld-comet, and the respective Borgfaers of Baviaan^s River.** It exfwesaes his 
Excellency's *' great satisfaction that the military officer in whoee hand he had 
placed that very important command, had conducted the duties of it teith such 
vHlity to the public service as to recommend himself to your (L e. the 
Boors'*) good opinion ;** and promises that his Excellency would not fitil to 
give their " opinions and wishes all that weight with his Majesty's Government 
in Elngland, which his situation enabled him to do." 

In addition to the use made of this memorial at Downing-street and the 
Horse Guards, Lord Charles Somerset was infiituated enough to refer to it, in a 
paper addressed by him to the Commissioners of Inquiry on the 18th of Sep* 
tember, 18*24, in animadverting upon the Memorial of the Albany Settiers to 
Earl Bathurst. He there speaks of it as a document ^' signed by all the respeo^ 
table boors on the Baviaan's River," and refers to it, and to other memorials of 
the same stamp addressed to the Commissioners themselves, as proofs of the 
excellence of bis * system ' of frontier policy • — Pari. Papers for 18275 No. 371, 
p. 40. 



318 FRONTIER POLICY. 

I considered it my duty, daring my residence on the frontier, 
in 1825, to draw up a very full statement of these harefiaced 
transactions, together with some others which I have yet to 
relate, and to transmit it to his Majesty's Commissioners ; and 
it now appears that representations were made without delay to 
the Home Goyernment by the Commissioners respecting these 
unwarrantable grants of land, as well as in regard to many other 
points of Lord Charles Somerset's frontier policy. It was 
subsequently reported that the grants to the boors had been 
rescinded by order of the Home Government, in conseqaence 
of the Commissioners' remonstrances. It is, however, a re- 
markable and melancholy fact, that Lord Charles Somerset had 
sufficient influence with Earl Bathurst to obtain the full con- 
firmation of these grants when he came home to England in 
1826 ; and this flne territory was accordingly secured for a 
possession to these men and their heirs for ever *• 

* Under all the circumstances of tliis extraordinary case I consider myself to 
be warranted, by a sense of what is yet due to the Cape colony, and still m<ne 
to the Caffer people^ to insert the following brief extract from a letter addressed 
to me by the Commissioners, dated October 20th| 1825, in reply to my State* 
ment above referred to : — " With regard to the intended, and, we fear, actual, 
grants of land to the westward of the Koonap River, in favour of the Duteh 
Boors who have taken active part in the expeditions against the Caffen, ve 
must for the present forbear to express an opinion, inasmuch as the £eu;ts stated 
by you, and which had previously come to our knowledge, have been already 
submitted to the notice of his Majesty^s Government.** 

Again, in a Report to Earl Bathurst, dated December 24, ] 825, the Com- 
missioners make the following remarks :_ '^ Although we think that the occu- 
pation of the lands between the Fish River and the Kciskamma may be desirably 
promoted, we consider it an object of great importance to establish in the ne^h- 
bourbood of the CafFers a class of settlers who would not by their conduct provoke 
a renewal of the hostilities that already have entailed so much niin upon the 
inhabitants of the frontier districts, and such expense and sacrifices to the colony 
at large j and with this view we should equally object to the settlement on those 
lands of the boors on account of their hereditary prejudices, and to the soldiers 
of the African corps.'* — (Pari. Papers for 1827, No. 371, p. 92.) And again, in 
their Report on the Trade of the Colony, dated Oct. 3, 1828, the Commissioners 
observe — " The circumstances which we have detailed in our former Reports, 
and which are comprised in the period that has elapsed since the Restontion of 
the colony to British authority, have had a direct tendency to keep alive in the 
breasts of the colonists a distrust and suspicion of the pacific intentions of the 
border tribes, and in the latter, a spirit of vengeance and retaliation for gradual 
encroachments upon their territory.'* — (Pari. Papers for 1829, No. 300, p. 14.) 

Now, without any farther reference to the yet unpublished Reports of the 



FRONTIER POLICY. 319 

I shall now exhibit a few specimens of the conduct of those 
frontier colonists whom Lord Charles Somerset represents as 
so * respectable/ and whose ^ opinions and wishes' he was so 



Commi8sioner8(evidently very important ones) is it not sufficiently clear, from the 
above observations, that the Home Government has been fully informed upon 
the 'frontier policy* of Lord Charles Somerset? And is it not equally plain that 
Lord Bathurst having thought fit to sanction those scandalous grants of land to 
the boors, in direct opposition to the remonstrances of his Majesty*s Commision- 
er8,the Home Government has thereby taken upon itself the entire responsibility 
of those acts ? To the Home Government alone, therefore, must the public and 
the friends of humanity look for redress, so far as redress is now attainable. And 
this consideration it is which has finally determined me to give publicity in the 
present work to these disgraceful details. 



As some of the preceding statements involve serious accusations against the 
late Lord Charles Somerset, it may, perhaps, be asked why I did not bring them 
forward when the case of his Lordship was before the House of Commons ? To 
which I reply, that although it was not my business to impeach Lord Charles 
Somerset's general administration— ruinous as it was to the colony ; and although 
I did not consider my own personal case of sufficient importance to be made 
the subject of public discussion; yet it was not my fault that these frontier 
tnmsactions at least, as well as his conduct in regard to the press, were not 
brought under parliamentary investigation. I placed detailed statements of 
those transactions in the hands of Mr. (now Sir John) Cam Hobhouse, and 
afterwards in the hands of Mr. Lombe, member for Arundel, who, in, 1827 had 
given notice of a motion on the Cape Case. But Lord Charles Somerset having 
then resigned the Government of the colony, it seems to have been agreed that 
all parliamentary proceediogs against him should be dropped. Whether that was 
the course which the Cape colony and the British nation had a right to expect, 
it is not for me, unacquainted with the secret springs of state affairs, to deter- 
mine. K the public interests have not materially suffered by it, it may, for 
aught I know, have been the right course. My own humbler duty I have 
endeavoured faithfully to perform, with that boldness which is due to truth and 
justice, yet with that calmness which is required by the candour of history. In 
1827, while Lord Charles Somerset was yet alive, and had an opportunity of 
replying to, or otherwise noticing, my statements, I published a detailed account 
of the whole of these frontier transactions in a periodical work of extensive cii^ 
culation, and which I know was brought under his lordship's personal notice. 
I now publish them once more, in order to exhibit clearly to the British nation 
and Government the flagitious injustice which has been done to the Native 
Tribes of South Africa, and to add my feeble voice to the far more powerful 
ones, which I trust, will soon be raised, to claim for the injured African justice 

«ld REORESS. 

Keaders who desire additional evidence of the principal facts here stated, ought 
to consult the following works, viz. the Printed Reports of his Majesty's Com- 
missioners of Inquiry — see Pari. Papers for 1827, Nos. 282, 371, 444, 300, and 
No. 584 for 1830; Sir Rufane Donkin's and Colonel Bird's Pamphlets on the 
Government of the Cape, published in 1827 ; the Oriental Herald for 1826, 
1827, and 1828; and Mr. Bannister^s ^Humane VoMqj' passim. 



320 ILL TREATMENT OF THE CAFFERS. 

willing to convey, with all the weight of his influence, to his 
Majesty's Government in England. 

In the beginning of November, 1824 (not six weeks subse- 
quent to the date of the governor's gracious reply to these 
men), nine calves had strayed, or been stolen, £rom one of the 
most zealous of Major Somerset's memorialists, a boor of the 
name of Louw (or Lodewyk) Bothma. There was not the 
slightest evidence that these calves had been taken by the 
Caffers ; on the contrary, the natural presumption was, that 
they had been destroyed by the hysanas, having been allowed 
to roam at large among the bushes without a keeper, or that 
they had been driven off by some of the gangs of predatory 
Bushmen and Hottentot deserters, who at that time swarmed 
in the neighbouring forests (as has been mentioned at page 363). 
But as nothing was to be got by ascribing the loss to the Bush- 
men or the beasts of prey, honest Louw without hesitation laid 
the blame on the Caffers, and solicited the commandant to send 
a party to attack them. This application was instantly com- 
plied with, and the Honourable Captain Massey was despatched 
with a strong force of Cape cavalry and armed boors to plunder 
once more the Jcraal of Makomo. No traces whatever were 
discovered (as I was assured by missionaries resident in the 
vicinity) of the lost calves having been carried thither. Never- 
theless, the commando, though not so fortunate as on a former 
occasion already described, when a spoil of seven thousand 
cattle was captured from the same clan, did not return emptj- 
handed. Four hundred and eleven head were brought off, of 
which a liberal share was allotted to Louw Bothma, and the 
rest were distributed among his compatriots who assisted in 
this expedition. 

This was bad enough : but it was not all. Two days after 
this foray, three Caffers, bringing with them two oxen and a 
slave woman, came to the residence of the field-cornet Vander- 
nest, at Glen-Lynden, with a message of peace from their 
chief Makomo, purporting that he desired most earnestly to 
live on amicable terms with the colonists, and that he had sent 



SLAUGHTER OF THEIR ENVOYS. 321 

out two colonial oxen, which his people had captured from the 
.YBgahonds who lived in the woods (meaning the Bushmen and 
deserters), together with a slave woman who had absconded 
from the colony, and whom the boors had recently requested 
him by a message to send out. This he had done in evidence 
of his desire to live in friendship ; but on the other hand^ he 
besought the field-comet to use his influence with the com- 
mandant to have the cattle restored which the late commando 
had carried off from his people, without any just cause. 

This reasonable appeal (which was delivered partly by one 
of the Caffer envoys who spoke Dutch, and partly through the 
medium of the slave woman who accompanied them), instead 
of meeting with a fair and friendly hearing from the fleld- 
comet, and from the other boors who stood beside him at the 
conference in front of his house, seems to have awakened only 
their apprehensions and their animosity ; to have alarmed their 
selfish avarice (for they had all shared in Makomo's plunder), 
and to have called up their hereditary rancour. Vandemest had 
at that time a patrol party of twelve armed boors stationed 
under his orders ; they were now standing around him, and 
he hastily ordered them to bring out their guns. The Gaffers 
hearing this, and judging from other indications that their 
message had given offence, became alarmed for their safety, 
and ran off with precipitation towards the forest. Vandernest 
called upon them to stop ; but they were frightened and con- 
tinued their flight. He then ordered his men to fire upon 
them, and he was eagerly obeyed. One of the Gaffers was 
shot dead on the spot ; another, mortally wounded, crawled 
into the thicket, and was left there to perish ; the third escaped^ 
and related the transaction to his chief and his countrymen, 
among whom (as I afterwards learned from the missionaries 
and from the Gaffers themselves) it excited for a time a general 
feeling of deep indignation. 

Captain Massey, who was stationed at the nearest military 
post, on hearing of the occurrence, rode over and inquired into 
the details, and, I presume, reported them to the commandant. 

p 3 



322 THE FRONTIER BOORS. 

The affair was also made known to the landdrost of the district, 
Mr. Mackay, hut I am not aware what course he took in regard 
to it. It is certain, however, that it was reported to the 
Governor; for Vandernest received soon afterwards a com- 
munication from his Excellency, commending highly his ^ zeal,' 
hut mildly hlaming his precipitation, on this occasion, and 
cautioning him to he less hasty in firing upon the unoffending 
natives in future. 

When I arrived at Glen-Lynden, in the April following, I 
went to Vandernest*s residence (which stands on the Flora 
rivulet), and carefully investigated the case hy examining 
several of the most respectable persons who had been present 
I then communicated the details, of which the above is an 
accurate abstract, to his Majesty's Commissioners, who also, to 
my knowledge, instituted an immediate inquiry, and who^ 
having collected all the evidence that was attainable, doubtless 
reported the case to the Home Government. But not the less 
did the perpetrators of this massacre share the bounty of the 
Colonial Government, afterwards confirmed by Earl Batharst, 
and up to this hour Vandernest remains field-cornet of Glen- 
Lynden. And while these men, thns stained with innocent 
blood, have been enriched with Caffer spoils, and with large 
grants of the Ceded Territory, the chief Makomo has never 
to this day received the slightest redress for the iniquitous 
plundering of his kraals, and the unprovoked slaughter of his 
* Messengers of Peace.' 

Nevertheless, I would not willingly give the impression that 
Cornelius Vandernest is a mere savage ruffian. On the contrary, 
he is really one of the most respectable of these frontier boors, 
and, apart from his hereditary prejudices in regard to the natives, 
is generally, and I beHeve justly, considered as a decent, good- 
natured, and well-disposed person. The fact is, that even the 
very best of these men have been trained from their childhood 
to regard Bushmen and Caffers with nearly the same feelings 
as they regard beasts of prey, only with far more rancorous 
animosity, so that they can scarcely be brought to view even 



THEIR BARBARITY. S23 

the treacherous slaughter of them as a crime. But while this 
circumstance may he allowed to palliate the guilt of such untu- 
tored men, it casts a darker shade over the conduct of those in 
authority, who, knowing well the habits and prejudices of those 
semi-barbarous back-settlers, yet intrust them with a perilous 
discretion towards the natives, which, from the very nature of 
things, cannot fail to be often grossly abused. 

Nor would it be just to represent those feelings towards the 
natives as confined solely to the Dutch-African population. 
Some of the British settlers, I grieve and blush to say, and 
those not exclusively of the lower orders, appear to have 
imbibed, in their full extent, the same inhuman prejudices 
towards the natives of the soil, and have even had the hardi- 
hood to avow such sentiments in pnnt. Some of the discharged 
soldiery who have settled on the eastern frontier have acquired 
a bad pre-eminence in this respect. One man of this class, 
who had married a sister of Yandernest's, had a prominent 
share in the slaughter of Makomo's envoys, and the following 
is another melancholy illustration of the prevalence of this 
spirit : — 

A month or two previous to this affair at the Flora, a party 
of five Gaffers, armed as usual with assagais, but one of them 
wearing as a badge of peace a white linen shirt, came over to the 
residence of my father at Glen-Lynden. My father, who had 
never before been visited by any armed Gaffers, felt rather 
apprehensive of their intentions ; but he suppressed his sus- 
picions, determined not to be the aggressor, and to treat them 
in a friendly manner, unless they gave him cause to act other- 
wise. One of them, who spoke Dutch, said that they were 
messengers sent out by the chief Makomo to the field-cornet 
Steenkamp on the Tarka ; and that they only requested a little 
food, and permission to remain for the night. They were 
accordingly presented with a sheep and an empty hut to sleep 
in, and they soon kindled a fire, and sat down with the utmost 
good humour and confidence to dress their supper and smoke 
their pipes. While they were thus employed, and quietly con- 



324 THE COMMANDO SYSTEM. 

versing with the Hottentot servants, one Hozie, a dishanded 
Serjeant of the 72nd regiment, who then occupied a farm on the 
location belonging to Mr. Sydserff, came to the place in great 
haste with his gun. He informed my father that he had heard 
of the arrival of the strangers, and having been engaged in 
many commandoes, and consequently well acquainted with the 
< nature' of the CaiFers (who, he said, ' were just the same as 
wolves, and very treacherous'); and as this party, he was 
sure, could only have come out for some wicked purpose, and 
might very probably murder all the family, and carry off the 
cattle in the night, he coolly proposed, as the best plan to 
prevent all this mischief, to surround the hut with their 
servants, while the Gaffers were busy with their supper, and 
shoot them all dead on the spot ! Happily not so ^ experienced' 
as his martial countryman, my father rejected this proposal 
with horror and indignation ! The poor Gaffers were permitted 
to eat and sleep in peace ; and next morning, before departing, 
they came and expressed, in affecting terms, their grateful ac- 
knowledgments for the hospitable treatment they had received. 
They parted in kindness. The Gaffers proceeded on their 
journey, and returned by another way to their own country, 
without doing the slightest injury to any one whatever. One 
individual of this party (the man who spoke Dutch), was the 
same person who afterwards delivered his chief's message to 
Vandernest, and was then murdered by the bo»rs, after escaping 
the projected treachery of the Scottish serjeant. 

I should be very thankful if it were in my power to state 
that the conduct of the frontier colonists, or the system of 
policy pursued towards the Gaffer tribes, had been materially 
improved since 1825. But it is a melancholy fact, that although 
the government of the colony since March, 1826, has been 
administered by individuals who cannot be suspected of any 
unworthy personal objects, and whose zeal for the public 
service no one has ever doubted ; yet, through some unhappy 
fatality, the old wretched policy of military reprisals — the 
commando system — in spite of former exposures, in spite of 



MASSACRE OF THE CAFFERS. 325 

all the remonstrances of his Majesty's Commissioners, has 
been allowed to continue, and, up to the latest hour that 
intelligence has reached England, is still carried on in all its 
pristine barbarity and injustice. I cannot possibly give the 
details of all the iniquitous cases which have reached me, and 
the recent publication of some of which by Mr. Bruce, a gentle- 
man in the East India Company's civil service, has excited a 
very acrimonious newspaper controversy in the colony. I must 
restrict myself to a single additional case, the facts of which 
have not been derived from Mr. Bruce's letters, though also 
mentioned by him, but from a source which has never yet 
deceived me, and which, in the present instance, I can rely 
upon to the letter. 

In June, 1830, a commando under the orders of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Somerset, Military Commandant on the frontier, and 
of the Hon. Captain Stockenstrom, Commissioner-General of 
the eastern province, entered Cafferland, to make reprisals for 
cattle stolen, or said to have been stolen, from the frontier 
boors. In regard to the proceedings of the two principal 
officers on this occasion, I have no particular information, nor 
am I aware of any complaint of their conduct ; but the follow- 
ing transaction took place under one of the subordinate func- 
tionaries : — 

The field-comet Erasmus was despatched with a party of 
boors to search for colonial cattle in the kraals of Seko, a chief 
of high rank, the brother of Islambi and Jaluhsa, and the 
uncle of Gaika. No colonial cattle were discovered in his 
possession, or in that of his followers ; nevertheless Erasmus 
took possession of the whole herds belonging to the clam. On 
the chief inquiring what was the meaning of this, he was told 
that they were seized in reprisal for Caffer depredations on the 
colony. Seko then entreated that the milch cows, at least, 
might be left, to save the females and children from starvation, 
and asked leave to accompany the field-cornet and his party to 
Fort Wiltshire, in order to represent to the Commandant the 
hardship and injustice to himself and his people of being 



826 SLAUGHTER OF TBE CHIEF SEtCO. 

deprived of all their property on account of offences in which 
they at least had no share. Erasmus, after some demur, 
acceded to these requests. He gave back the milch cows, 
and he granted permission to Seko, and seven of his men, to 
accompany his party, upon condition that they left behind 
their arms (assagais), and assisted to drive the captured cattle. 

Upon this amicable agreement, the Boors and Caffers left 
the place together, Seko and his men, with only sticks in their 
hands, driving on the herd. But they had not proceeded far, 
when some natives, at a distance, having given a whistle, the 
Caffer cattle, which are all trained to run by such signals, made 
a sort of rush, as if to escape, and the Boors instantly turning 
their guns on the unarmed men in the midst of them, although 
they had not shown the smallest disposition to encourage a 
rescue of the cattle, shot the chief and six of his men dead on 
the spot. When the party reached Fort Wiltshire, they had a 
story ready, as usual : the Commandant was told of a desperate 
skirmish with Seko and his men, and that they had been forced 
to fire and kill some of the Caffers ; and this report was, as 
usual, but too readily credited and received. 

One of the Boors, however, afterwards blabbed the real facts 
of the transaction, and Captain Stockenstrom, on hearing them, 
is said to have gone back into Cafferland, and to have investi- 
gated the case thoroughly, and reported the facts to the Colonial 
Government. Be that as it may, it is certain that the account 
I have now given of this affair was substantiated by the carefal 
examination of eye-witnesses on the spot ; and it is equally 
certain that the Caffer people received no redress for the 
slaughter of their chief and his unarmed followers ; and that 
Peter Erasmus, one of the principal leaders of the rebel Boors 
in 1815 — one of the principal sharers of the Ceded Territory in 
1824 and 1825 — and the commander in this base and cowardly 
massacre in 1830 — is still a field-cornet, with undiminished 
favour, under the Colonial Government. 

Of the spirit that still actuates the frontier Boors, the 
following is another recent and striking illustration. In 



PROJECTED ATTACK OK THE HOTTENTOTS. 327 

December 18dl,ramoQr8 were industriously propagated among 
these Ignorant and prejudiced men, that the Hottentots of the 
Kat River, towards whom, as might be expected, they enter* 
tained the most envenomed jealousy, had bud a plot to attack 
them on New Year's day. The field-comets, instead of report* 
ing these absurd rumours to the civil authorities, called out 
their armed militia, and marched towards the Kat River to 
anticipate the pretended plot. The commandant, Colonel 
Somerset, had, however, got some intimation of their mis- 
chievous intentions, and hurried to Kat River before them. 
It was Sunday, and he found the Hottentots quietly congre- 
gated, unarmed, in their different places of worship. In one 
place there was a congregation of about 500 souls, 109 of 
whom had just taken the sacrament. He informed the uncon- 
scious people of the rumours that had been spread ; and taking 
with him the three coloured field-comets, Groepe, Valentyn, 
and Stoffels, he rode to meet the troop of colonial militia 
advancing from the Koonap. By energetic remonstrances he 
prevailed on these violent and vindictive men to return quietly 
to their homes; and on the 11th of January, 1832, a procla- 
mation was issued by the Governor, reprehending, in the 
severest terms, the mischievous and irrational conduct of the 
colonists and their local officers. But for the fortunate accident 
of the designs of the boors being thus discovered and prevented, 
this Hottentot settlement would, in all human probability, have 
been deluged with innocent blood, and a bitter feud begun 
between the white and coloured classes, which might have 
lasted for generations. I have abstracted this account from 
the Cape Gazette of January 11, 1832, which appears to have 
derived its information from Colonel Somerset's despatches *• 

Although this last ebullition of the hereditary jealousy and 
animosity of the frontier boors towards the coloured race was 
not directed against the Caffers, it is not inappropriately noticed 
here, for it serves to show, in a very striking manner, bow unfit 

* See also Mr. Kay^s account of this affiiir, p. 491. 



328 EXTIRPATION OF NATIVE TRIBES. 

tbis class of men were to be placed in tbe Ceded Territory, 
even had tbere existed no otber objections to snob a disposal of 
tbat tract of country ; and it proves not less clearly tbeir utter 
unfitness to be trusted, as yety witb any discretionary powers in 
regard to dealings witb tbe native tribes. Yet in tbe face of 
tbis self-evident fact, in tbe face of bis own proclamation of tbe 
lltb of January, 1832, just referred to, did tbe late governor, 
Sir Lowry Cole, almost as tbe last act of bis authority, issue, 
on tbe Gtb of June, 1833, an Ordinance (No. 99), reviving a 
proclamation of tbe first British Government in 1797, in 
support of commandoes, and strengthening it with additional 
clauses of bis own, whereby every petty provincial functionary, 
being for that purpose invested with high discretionary powers, 
is not merely permitted, but strongly encouraged and enjoined, 
to call out the armed militia^ and to proceed on commando 
against tbe natives, whensoever, whithersoever, and on what- 
soever grounds it may appear to such functionary fitting so to 
do I — tbis perilous discretion not being limited, be it observed, 
to " any civil commissioner or justice of the peace," but equally 
extended to " every field-commandant^ field-cornet, or pro- 
visional field-cornet,'* and among others, of course, to such 
ignorant, semi-savage peasants as Erasmus, Vandernest, and 
tbe Bushman-murderer mentioned at page 372. 

And here I am constrained to remark, tbat wherever the 
fault may lie (and I am far from imputing unworthy motives), 
tbe * frontier policy,' during the last few years, has been of a 
description, which, if not quite so disreputable as that of Lord 
Charles Somerset, has yet been marked in many instances with 
lamentable weakness, and with still more lamentable injustice. 
Its weakness has been especially evinced on tbe north-eastern 
frontier, where numbers of boors have been suffered to proceed 
beyond tbe boundary, and to take possession of an immense 
tract of country between tbe great branches of the Orange 
river; and there they are now located, and actively proceeding, 
like tbeir ancestors of old, in oppressing, enslaving, and gradu- 
ally extirpating tbe native tribes, without any eflficient effort on 



VROMTIER POLICY. 329 

the part of Goyemment to restrain them*, while hands of 
native handitti, illicitly supplied with ammunition hy these men, 
and by their profligate traders, in exchange for their plunder, 
are spreading devastation among the Bechuana tribes, and not 
sparing even the outskirts of the colony. 

Again, on the Caffer frontier, what has been the policy ? 
The wretched and barbarous system of commandoes has been 
continued to the present hour, by which the quiet and well- 
disposed chiefe are continually punished and plundered on 
account of offences committed by individuals or bands of Caffer 
thieves whom they cannot control, and from whose depredations 
they themselves continually suffer. By this policy, while the 
most respectable of the frontier chiefs are oppressed and ruined, 
the colonists are not protected, and none are gainers but the 
most profligate class of border boors, whose trade is to promote 
disturbance and to enrich themselves by plunder. 

While all this, and much more that I cannot even glance at, 
has been going on, there was in the colony an officer of dis- 
tinguished activity and intelligence, the Commissioner- General 
of the Eastern Province, appointed (as it was understood) 
with a special view to the introduction of a more efficient and 
humane system of frontier policy. But this officer, for reasons 
only known to the Colonial, or perhaps to the Home, Govern- 
ment, was not permitted to proceed on the plan he had so 
successfully commenced at the Kat River ; but, on the contrary, 
was for the most part detained at Cape Town, altogether unem- 
ployed, and absolutely kept in ignorance of the most important 
frontier transactions, while the old short-sighted and barbarous 
policy, which he is said to have discountenanced, has been 
kept in full play. Such at least, as I learn from my colonial 
correspondents, was the general opinion in Cape Town, at the 
moment when Captain Stockenstrom, the officer referred to, 
left the colony in disgust (as it was reported), with a view to 
resign into the bands of bis Majesty's Government an honour- 

• Bannister, pp. 67—72. Kay, 602—506. 



330 TREATMENT OF THE CHIEF MAKOMO. 

able and important appointment, which had been thus rendered 
a useless and inyidious sinecure *. 

It would be easy to illustrate the recent * frontier system' 
by numerous additional instances of colonial aggressions, and 
of individual oppressions and outrages ; but there is no end to 
such details. I shall confine myself to a brief notice of the 
treatment of one chief. Makomo, the eldest son of Gaika, is 
one of the chiefe of highest rank on the frontier. He is not| 
according to the Amakosa usages, the principal heir to his 
&ther^8 hereditary honours, the legitimate successor being a 
youth named Sandili, a minor about twelve years of age, but of 
higher blood than Makomo by his mother (who is a sister of 
Pow£na, the Amatembu chief), and consequently recognised 
by all the tribe, and by his elder brothers, as the future head 
of the clan. But Makomo is next to him in power, and appears 
to share with the mother of Sandili the functions of regent 
Makomo is acknowledged by all who have been personally 
acquainted with himy to be a man of superior sense, talent, and 
integrity f. Yet let the reader mark what has been the actual 
treatment of this chief up to the very latest accounts from the 
colony. 

* Whatever truth there may be in these surmises, it ia at least certain that 
Captain Stockenstrom h(M retired from ofSce, and has some time ago proceeded 
to the north of Europe. 

'I' Makomo is next in power to Sandili, who is yet a minor. The CaSen 
highly respect Makomo for his integrity; and those who know him speak highly 
of him.**— GraAam'* Town Journal^ July 18, 1833. 

Mr. Bruce, a gentleman of high rank in the East India Company^s Civil 
Service, who visited Makomo and other frontier chiefs in 1833, and published 
in the Cape papers their own (leeouttt of their treatment by the colonists, makes 
the follo>ving remarks : — " The minds of Makomo and Botma displayed great 
natural power and strength, and the most surprising knowledge of the natural 
principles of justice and equity. The Hottentots (of Kat River), the mission- 
aries, Messrs. Read and Brownlee, with one voice declared them to be men of 
natural integrity and uprightness. Yet it has been the colonial policy to treat 
those Chiefs as Caffer thieves and vagabonds, and to discard in its intercourse 
with them every principle of international law.*' — " Would that I could draw 
the smallest analogy between the colonial external policy towards these cbie&, 
and the external policy that is pursued towards the dififerent native chiefi in 
British India ! Nothing can be more different. 

" Botma spoke to this effect : — ^ There are three things I must ever regret. 
The first is, that I cannot speak in a language that we mutually understand, and 



TREATMENT OF THE CHIEF MAKOMO. 331 

I have already mentioned the predatory attacks on Makomo 
in 1823 and 1824, and the unpunished slaughter of his enyoys 
at Glen-Lynden. In 1828 and 1829, there was a feud between 
Makomo and Chellala, a neighbouring chief of the Amatembu, 
in the course of which the former is said to have invaded the 
sanctity of the colonial territory by driving his enemy across 
the frontier, and by attacking and plundering some of his clan 
who took refuge in the Tarka district. Makomo has given an 
explanation of this transaction, in which he represents himself 
as the greatly injured party, and says that he was twice attacked 
by Colonel Somerset, at the instigation of his enemy Chellala, 
and forced to restore more than all the cattle he had taken 
from the Amatembu chief, although the latter had been actually 
guilty of the depredations on the colony of which he (Makomo) 
had been accused, and had, moreover, recently slain his relative 
and ally Powana, likewise a steady friend of the colony*. 
Whatever may have been the true merits of the case as regards 
these clannish feuds (with which one would suppose the colonists 
had little concern), it is certain that in May, 1829, Makomo 
and his clan were, by order of the Colonial Government, driven 
out of a large and fertile tract of country (now the Hottentot 
Location) on the sources of the Kat River, upon the pretexts 
that this tract was within the bounds of the Ceded Territory — 
that Makomo had been permitted to occupy it only by sufferance 
and during good behaviour — and that he had forfeited his claims 
to its possession, by his plundering of Chellala, by his crossing 
the frontier with an armed band, and by suffering his people to 



tell 70a all the 'wrongs inflicted on my people by the colony. The seeond is, 
that I cannot write a book, and publish in it those wrongs. And the third and 
last is, that I cannot put myself on board a ship, and lay these wrongs before the 
King of England?*— ^yoM/A African Advertiser, Nov. 7, 1832. 

Botma made similar observations to the Rev. Dr. Wright in 1825, asking, 
tauntingly, if * it was from the Bible that Englishmen learned to plunder the 
Cafliers of their cattle?* Five years afterwards Dr. Wright found this chief 
redaced to a state of great indigence, and almost destitute both of cattle and 
land. 

• Letter from Mr. Bruce, inserted in the South Afiican Advertiser for Nov. 
10, 1832.— See also Bannister, pp. 79, 93. 



832 TREATMENT OF THE CHIEF MAKOMO. 

commit depredations on the colony. Makomo and all his people 
were expelled accordingly ; and though no blood was shed oa 
this occasion, and the removal was in other respects mildly 
executed^ yet not only were the Cafler hamlets destroyed, but 
the missionary institution of Balfour, established under the pro- 
tection of this chief, appears to have been thereby subverted*. 

Makomo yielded on this occasion without resistance, though 
not without strong remonstrance f. Many rumours were for 
some time afloat in the colony that he was actively engaged in 
organising a formidable league of the Gaffer chiefs, to attempt 
by war to recover the extensive territory of which his nation 
has been during the last ten years so iniquitously dispossessed. 
But although it is sufficiently clear from the facts stated in this 
chapter, that if the Gaffer chiefs had entered into such a league 
they would have had right and justice entirely on their side, 
yet no such combination, no hostile demonstration of any sort, 
did in reality take place. Whatever may have been their 
natural feelings of indignation and resentment, they smothered 
them, and remained at peace. They have been long fully 
convinced, indeed, that they were totally unable to resist our 
power; and such have been the frightful calamities suffered 
from our former invasions of their country, that nothing short 
of that pitch of oppression under which long-enduring patience 
gives way to the frenzy of despair will ever probably again drive 
them into a general war with the colony. But if we do drive 
them to that extremity, it will be indeed a savage war — a war 
of extermination I 

It is acknowledged that Makomo has evinced the strongest 
disposition to cultivate peace with the colony, and has con- 



• Bannister, pp. 90 — 100. — Kay, p. 493. Reports of the Glasgow Misdomrjr 
Society for 1828, 1829, 1830. 

*|* I am aware that Captain Stockenstrom,'who had a principal hand in Makomo*! 
expulsion from the Kat River, considers that step to have heen both just and 
expedient. But with all my sincere respect for that gentleman^s opinion, I 
cannot concur with him. I regard it, on the contrary, as a measure in itself 
alike iniquitous and impolitic, though, in one point of view, amply atoned for 
by the Hottentot settlement. 



TREATMENT OF THE CHIEF MAKOMO. 333 

tinned to reside quietly within the narrow tract of land on the 
Chumi, which the Commissioner-General Stockenstrom^ and 
the Commandant Somerset left in his possession after his 
expulsion firom the Kat River in 1829, and which appears to 
have heen verbally guaranteed to him also by Sir Lowry Cole. 
He has uniformly protected the missionaries and traders, has 
readily punished any of his own people who committed depre- 
dations on the colonists, and on many occasions has given 
compensation four or five fold for stolen cattle driven through 
his territory by undiscovered thieves from other clans. Not- 
withstanding all this, however, and much more stated in his 
behalf in the Cape papers, colonial oppression continues to 
trample down this chief with a steady, firm, relentless foot. 
Having mentioned the severities of Colonel Somerset towards 
him at a former period, it is, however, but just to that officer 
to state that he is reported to have become subsequently 
friendly to Makomo, whose recent harsh treatment occurred 
chiefly during Colonel Somerset's absence in England. 

On the 7th of October last, Makomo was invited by Mr. 
Read to attend the Anniversary Meeting of an Auxiliary 
Missionary Society at Philipton, Kat River. The chief went 
to the military officer commanding the nearest frontier post, 
and asked permission to attend ; but was peremptorily refused. 
He ventured, nevertheless, to come by another way, with his 
ordinary retinue, but altogether unarmed, and delivered, in his 
native language, a most eloquent speech at the meeting, in 
which he seconded a motion, proposed by the Rev. Mr- 
Thomson, the established clergyman, for promoting the con- 
version of the Caffers. Alluding to the great number of 
traders residing in Cafferland, contrasted with the rude pro- 
hibition given to his attending this Christian assembly, he 
said, in the forcible idiom of his country — " There are no 
Englishmen at Kat River ; there are no Englishmen at 
Graham's Town : they are all in my country, with their wives 
and children in perfect safety ; while I stand before you as 
a rogue and a vagabond, having been obliged to come by 



dd4 TREATMENT OF THE CHIEF MAKOMO. 

Stealth*.'* Then addressing his own followers, he said — 
** Ye sons of Kahabi, I have brought you here to behold what 
the Word of God hath wrought. These Hottentots were but 
yesterday as much despised and oppressed as to-day are we — 
the Gaffers. But see what the Great Word has done for 
them I I'hey were dead ; they are now alive ; they are men 
once more. Go and tell my people what ye have seen and 
heard; for such things as we have here seen and heard, 
I hope ere long to witness in our own land. God is 
great who hath said it, and who will surely bring it to pass I " 
-»-In the midst of this exhilarating scene — the African chief 
recommending to his followers the adoption of that ^ Great 
Word,* which brings with it at once social and spiritual 
regeneration — they were interrupted by the sudden appearance 
of a troop of dragoons, despatched from the military post to 
arrest Makomo for having crossed the frontier line without 
permission. This was effected in the most brutal and insulting 
manner possible, and not without considerable hazard to the 
chieftain's life, from the ruffian-like conduct of a drunken 
Serjeant, although not the slightest resistance was attempted. 
These facts have been published, with numerous other dis- 
graceful details, in two Cape papers, without either contra- 
diction or explanation being offered. 

But the worst act is yet to be mentioned. These last may 
have been the unauthorised proceedings of petulant subalterns : 
this is the deed of the acting Governor for the time being — 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Wade — ^who having been left to ad- 
minister the government of the Colony for a month or two, 
between the departure of one Governor and the arrival of 
another, has thought fit to signalise his brief prefecture by 
cutting another slice from the Caffer territory — from that 
territory which even Lord Charles Somerset had relentingly 



A letter from a most respectable correspondent on the spot, written jast 
after this meeting, states that there were about two hundred traders from the 
colony residing in Cafferland, many of them with their wives and children, it 
the moment Makomo was thus treated ! 



CHANGE OF SYSTEM PROPOSED. 335 

spared to Gaika*, and which Sir Lowry Cole permitted his 
son Makomo to retain. The whole case is thus forcibly 
stated by Mr. Fairbairn : — 

" Under the British Government, the Caffer territory has 
been very much reduced. They have been driven from the 
Zureveld ; they have been expelled from the Neutral Territory: 
but still the actual boundary is sought for in vain. We do 
not affirm that the boundary was left doubtful, that occasion 
might never be wanting for extending our claims. We only 
say, that had such been the intention of the Colonial Govern- 
ment, — had they wished to keep the Caffers in a state of 
constant doubt and irritation, — had they resolved to keep all 
questions respecting boundaiies open, for the purpose of 
seizing more and more of their neighbours' lands, as they 
might find it convenient for public or private reasons, — had 
they determined at some future period to appropriate for their 
friends the whole of Caffraria, — they would have acted pre- 
cisely as they have done, and are still doing." — << In the case 
of the Caffer Boundary, although one can scarcely find two 
people who agree as to the actual limit said to have been fixed 
by certain Governors and Chiefs, yet in every instance the 
Colonial Government has decided in its own favour, and 
treated the doubting or hesitating Chiefs as criminals. 

'' A few years ago, Makomo, the son of Gaika, was driven 
very unceremoniously from the Kat River, where he not 
only grazed his cattle but cultivated corn. Many of his 
people died among the mountains from cold and hunger. He 
obtained no compensation* The Missionary, Mr. Ross, who 
had formed a station and school in the midst of this tribe, 
laid his complaint and remonstrance before the Governor, and 
was grossly insulted for his pains. Why ? Because the Kat 



* When Lord Charles Somerset ^finaUy arranged * with Guka the cession 
of the * Neutral Ground/ in 1819, it is reported that Gaika saved the beautiful 
country from the Chumi to the head of the Keisi, by an affecting appeal to the 
White Men "" to spare him the place of his birth ! ' — Bannister, p. 74. 



d36 CHANGE OF SYST£M PROPOSED. 

River was part of the Neutral Territory ; and to prove its 
neutrality, it was immediately granted to the natives of the 
colony. What did Makomo receive in exchang-e ? Nothing. 
This happened about five years ago. And now, the storm 
being in some measure spent, Makomo in a moment of pro- 
found peace is ordered over the Chumi. Why? Because 
the land he at present occupies and cultivates is part of the 
Neutral Territory. And to prove its neutrality it is, we 
understand, on the point of being given away to fresh hands 
firom the colony *." 



* South Afirican Advertiser for December 7, 1 833. 

In the same paper is inserted a letter from Makomo himself. That chief, 
like our European nobles in the olden times, does not use the pen with his own 
hand ; but the letter was written down to his dictation, and is certified bj two 
respectable individuals to be ** a true copy, as interpreted to them.** — " Though 
the tone is modest/' says the editor, " the matter is such as excites in us, at 
least, very lively emotions." — I gave the greater part of it — and add no 
comment. 

** As I and my people have been driven back over the Chumi River without 
being informed why, I should be glad to know from the Government what 
evil toe have done ? I was only told that we must retire over the Chumi, but 
for what reason I was not informed. Both Stockenstrom and Somerset agreed 
that I and my people should live west of the Chumi, as well as east of it, with- 
out being disturbed. When shall I and my people be able to get rest ? 

** When my father was living he reigned over the whole land, firom the Rah 
River to the Kei ; — but since the day he refused to help the Boors against 
the English, he has lost more than the one-half of his country by them. My 
father was always the best fiiend of the Elnglish Government, although he was 
a loser by them. 

** My poor people feel much the loss not only of their grazing ground 
(without which we cannot live), but also of our corn land. Some of our com 
is now of considerable height. All this we must abandon. 

** I have lived peaceably with my people west of the Chumi River, ever since 
I have been allowed by Stockenstrom and Somerset to live there in my ovon 
country. When any of my people stole from the Colonists, I have returned 
what was stolen. I have even returned the cattle which the people of other 
kraals have stolen. Yet both I and my brother Tjali have almost no more 
country for our cattle to live in. — ^I am also much dissatisfied with the falM 
charges sometimes spoken against me. I do not know why so many Com- 
mandoes come into this country, and take away our cattle and kill our people, 
without sufficient reason. We do no injury to the colony, and yet I remaio 
under the foot of the English. 

'* I would beg the favour of your inquiring at the Government for me the 
reason of all these things. 

"Your Friend, 
" Makomo, the Chief.*' 



POLITICAL REMARKS. 837 

The preceding remarks appeared in the South- African Ad- 
vertiser during Colonel Wade's administration. The following 
forms a part of the leading article in the first paper published 
«fter the arrival of the new Governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban : — 

"What will require the immediate exercise of the best princi- 
ples and the highest abilities, are the formation and settlement 
of a just, humane, and honourable scheme of intercourse with 
the Native Tribes beyond the frontier. There is at present no 
system, or one that is good for nothing ; and a cloud is gather- 
ing in that quarter, which, but for the speedy intervention of 
wisdom and prudence, will certainly descend in a shower of 
blood. On this point, above all others, we beg permission to 
assure his Excellency that he must rely upon the resources 
of his own understanding and heart." — " The barbarians or 
savages^ as we are pleased to style them, understand the merits 
of a simple case as well as the most refined ; and in most, if not 
all our disputes frtim the beginning, they would find it no diffi- 
cult matter, before an impartial world, to obtain a verdict against 
us. As it is, a sense of injustice rankles in their minds, and 
the harshness with which unjustifiable orders have recently been 
executed has either reduced them to despair, or exasperated 
tbem to schemes of revenge. The haughtiness of the chief 
has been aggravated by the petulancy of the subordinate, and 
rendered intolerable by the brutality of the soldier *. We refer 
particularly to the case of the Caffer chief Makomo. In treat- 
ing with such a man, we have nothing to do with the fieict of 
his being black, or living chiefly on milk, or wrapping himself 
in an ox*s hide. He is a man of ability and sound sense, and 
the undoubted legitimate Prince of a Nation. As such, he 
should be met and spoken with by the Governor of the colony, 
or his proper representatives, on a footing of perfect equality. 
Our superiority should be shown in superior gentleness and 
liberality-— qualities which never Ml to make a fieivourable and 
deep impression on the minds of men in his unfortunate 

* In allusioii to the lato anett of fifakomo at the Kat River. 

Q 



838 POLITICAL REMARKS. 

circumstances, and to which we have occasion to know that this 
chief's heart is peculiarly open. He has just heen stripped of 
the last shred of his territory, to which the wily interpetration 
of a most questionable verbal agreement gave the Colonial 
Goverument the slightest shadow of a claim. His Excellency 
will no doubt inquire into the grounds alleged for his sudden 
and summary expulsion, while his com was in the blade, and 
his cattle dependent on the grass ; and see whether the covet- 
ousness of individuals had not more to do with this act than a 
pure zeal for the public service *.'' 

Such was the state of affairs on the Caffer frontier within 
three months of the present date —(April 15th, 1834, when I 
wrote this chapter). We come now to the important practical 
question — TVhat is to be done f I reply, without hesitation — 
* Be just — and fear not* Captain Stockenstrom has briefly 
pointed out one sound remedy for the evils on the eastern 
frontier. The Kat River, he remarks, has now been rendered 
^<by far the safest part of that frontier; and the same pUm 
followed up on a more extensive scale would soon enable 
Government to withdraw the troops altogether." — (see p. 408.) 
I cordially concur in the same opinion : but I venture to add, 
though as humble suggestions merely, the following additional 
hints :— 

Restore to such of the frontier chiefs as have equitable claims 
upon it, all that is not irretrievably alienated of the Neutral or 
Ceded Territory. They will gratefully receive it on our own 
terms f . Give it back to them, to be held of the Coloniid 



• South African Advertiser for January 18, 1834. 

t Since writing this pan^raph, I have the satisfaction to find that my opinions 
on this subject coincide in a remarkable degree with those of the Rev. Williaffl 
Shaw, the respectable Wesleyan missionary, whose services in Cafferland haw 
been alike meritorious and successful. — See some important remarks and si^- 
gestions on this subject in Mr. Bannister's Humane Policy^ pp. 83, 103, IW. 
— See also Kay, pp. 497, 507. — And here follows the testimony of another 
important witness : — " Makomo, Enno, and Kongo, are still on the Ceded Tct- 
ritory. They are most anjsious to remain ; and Botma is desirous, if it eannotbe 
obtained otherwise, to purchase a piece of land on the said territory, as neither be 



BEST LINE OF POLICY. 339 

Goyernment, and settled on a plan somewhat analogous to 
that of the Kat River ; reserving, however, to the chiefs cer- 
tain rights of seigniory over the respective domains allotted 
ta their clans, such as would enahle them to maintain their 
hereditary rank and influence, without having the power of 
oppressing their vassals. This would tend to preserve the native 
aristocracy of the country and the existing relations of society, 
and would greatly promote order and good government. These 
Colonial Chiefs might he appointed field-commandants over 
their respective clans ; and the whole of the settlements, includ- 
ing the Kat River, might he placed under a magistrate carefully 
selected for that office, and who ought to he a person friendly 
to the native race, and well acquainted with their character, 
hahits^ and usages. These CafFer settlers, after a prohationary 
period, might he intrusted with fire-arms, in the same manner 
as the Hottentots of the Kat River, and all the male adults 
might he embodied as a militia for the defence of the frontier. 
Place confidence in these people, and they will he loyal to the 
colony, as the Hottentots have heen loyal. Missionaries should 
be liberally encouraged to settle among them, and schools 
founded and endowed in every village. Lastly, the colonial 
laws should be extended to a certain fixed and well-defined 
boundary — say the Keisi and Chumi rivers, and thence the 
summit of the mountain ridge to the Winterberg. 

With respect to the tribes and clans beyond the colonial 
boundary, let a system of just and honourable dealing, upon 
terms of fair reciprocity, be established and strictly adhered to 

nor these other chiefs have any land they can claim east of the Eeiskamma. 
Makomo, particularly, is anxious for a spot for the residence of a missionary a 
little helow the influx of the Chumi, where he has formed his plans for build- 
ing, and for leading out the water for irrigation. Botma and Enno are also both 
eager to have missionaries." — ** We are earnestly looking to the Home Govern- 
ment for some effectual measures being taken for the protection and improve- 
ment of the Caffer tribes. Their civilisation would be an exceeding blessing to 
the colony as well as to themselves. I think they are just ripe for a great 
change. They see that they cannot stand against the colony. They feel that 
they are at our mercy, and surely they ought to find it. A little sound policy 
and upright dealing with them would accomplish all that is required." — Letter 
from the Rev. J, Read, Missionary^ dated Oct. 10, 1833. 

Q 2 



340 BEST LINE Of POLICT« 

Let a general Conyention of all the chiefs west of the Keisi 
river be solemnly assembled ; and let an equitable plan for the 
restoration of stolen cattle, for the redress of mutual grievances^ 
and for the regulation of commerce, be proposed for their adop> 
tion. Such a convention might perhaps be advantageouslj 
held at stated periods ; and, without in any degree interfering 
with the hereditary precedence recognised among them as dae 
to the respective Chiefs, it might form a sort of legislative and 
judicial council for maintaining peace and good order among the 
independent Caffer Tribes. Let one or more English residents 
be stationed in Cafferland, and let a Caffer envoy represent his 
nation in the colony *. Let a just and simple code of inter- 
national law be drawn up and translated into the Amakosa 
language ; and get the chiefs to affix their signatures to it, and 
to concur in giving to it prompt and firm execution. Insist 
on strict and speedy justice being executed on all convicted 
offenders ; but cease to punish the innocent for the guilty. 
Let the Caffers see clearly that we are resolved henceforth 
neither to do nor to endure wrong ; and I will venture to pre* 
diet that we shall have all, except a few habitual rogues on 
both sides of the boundary, zealously devoted to the support 
of an equitable frontier system. 



* The Commissioners of Inquiry have recommended that civil agents should 
be stationed among the Native Tribes ; but their special report on this subject, 
■which doubtless contains valuable suggestions, has not been published. In the 
concluding paragraph of their Report on ^he Finances of the Colony, the Com- 
missioners make the following pregnant observation : — " We can only hope for 
a reduction of the heavy expense that is now incurred in maintaining it (the 
military defence of the frontier), by the progressive establishment of more ami- 
cable relations with the tribes on the frontier ; and it is at once consolatoiy and 
satisfactory to reflect, that any measures which have a tendency to preserve 
the tranquillityof the frontier on the side of Caffraria, will in the same degree 
contribute to the prosperity and commercial enterprise of the Colony.** (Pari. 
Papers for 1827, No. 282, p. 83. . In their Report on the Administration of the 
Government, also, they have strongly recommended that „ no offensive hostili- 
ties whatever should be allowed to take place aloi^ the frontier of the colony," 
except under certain prudent restrictions there specified. {Ibidy p. 17.) Bui 
it is a remarkable fact, and not very easy to be accounted for that, up to the pre. 
sent hour, the judicious^and beneficent recommendations of his Majesty^s Com- 
missioners in regard to the Native Tribes appear to have been, in almost every 
essential point, totally neglected ; and a natural query recurs. How can tki 
Home Government eaottse itself for permitting such criminal neglect 9 



READINESS TO EMBRACE CHRISTIANITY. 341 

Naj more, however Utopian such * vision^ ' may appear to 
some people, I will venture to predict that if some such system 
(I speak of the principle^ not of the details — which may per- 
haps require to be greatly altered from this rude outline) shall 
be now adopted, and judiciously and perseveringly carried into 
operation, we shall at no remote period see the tribes beyond 
the frontier earnestly soliciting to be received under the pro* 
taction of the colony, or to be embraced within its limits and 
jurisdiction. At this moment, the Gunuquebi clan are anxious 
for such an incorporation. Their three chiefs, the sons of old 
Kongo, have already embraced Christianity, and proclaimed the 
due observance of the Christian Sabbath throughout their terri- 
tory *• Enno, Botma, and above all Makomo, are earnestly 
disposed to follow the same example, and to found missionary 
institutions and schools in the midst of their people. The 
Native Tribes, in short, are ready to throw themselves into 
our arms. Let us open our arms cordially to embrace them as 
MEN and as brothers. Let us enter upon a new and nobler 
career of conquest. Let us subdue savage Africa by justice, 
by KINDNESS, by the talisman of christian truth. Let 

* The proclamation issued by these chiefs is altogether extremely interesting 
and curious, and I regret that I can only find room for one or two clauses of it : 
— " We, Pato, Kama, and Kongo, the chiefs of the Gunuquebi tribe, having 
taken into our serious consideration the state of our people, have come to the 
determination to issue general orders which shall henceforward be considered a 
law of our tribe, viz. — That from and after the date of this 29th day of October, 
1833, all our people shall reverence and observe the Sabbath, by abstaining from 
all work on that day, except such as is considered absolutely necessary,^* Sk. 

** And be it also known, that we do also hereby prohibit all colonial traders 
from purchasing any hides, horns, ivory, cattle, or any other marketable articles, 
except food for their own use, from any of our people on the Sabbath-day. And as 
we twve several times had to reprimand some for thus breaking the Sabbath ; and 
as we find our people plead the example of such men as justification of their own 
breach of that day ; therefore we have, on further consideration, determined to 
levy a fine on all such colonial traders found purchasing anything on the Sabbath, 
besides food for their own use, which shall be as follows : 

For the first offence — One head of cattle. 

For the second offence — Two head of cattle. 

For the third offence — Three head of cattle. 

And if any transgress beyond this number, then we will use ou^KiWn discretion 

to levy such fine as we may think proper.** — Graharns Town Journal, Nov, 

14, 1833. 



342 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

US thtis go forth, in the name and under the blessing of God, 
graduallj to extend the moral influence, and, if it be thought 
desirable, the territorial boundary also of our Colony, until it 
shall become an Empire, embracing Southern Africa from the 
Keisi and the Gareep to Mozambique and Cape Negro — and to 
which, peradventure, in after days, even the equator shall prove 
no ultimate limit. 



343 



CHAPTER XV. 

Topics omitted — Progress of Christian Missions in South 
Africa — The Rev, Dr. Philip — Deplorable state of the 
Country beyond the Northern Frontier — Character and 
Influence of the Periodical Press — Mr* Fairbaim^s Services 
in the Colony — Caffer Commando in December^ 1825 — 
Anecdote of a Caffer Warrior — Conclusion of the Author's 
Personal Narrative^ and his Return to England — Progress 
and present State of the Glen-Lynden Settlement* 

Intimately connected with the welfare of the colony 

generally, and more particularly with that of the coloured 

classes, are the following topics : — The present state of 

Colonial Law and Legislation ; the constitution of the Courts 

of Justice, and the liability of the Judges and local Magistracy 

to he influenced by the prevailing feelings and prejudices of 

the dominant class ; the operation of Trial by Jury in criminal 

cases, as respects the coloured population ; the general state 

of Education and of Religious Instruction ; the progress and 

prospects of Christian Missions ; the spirit of the Periodical 

Press ; the influence of Public Opinion ; and the tone of 

Sentiment and standard of Morals among the several classes 

of the community. 

On most of these topics, and on others connected with 
them, I had collected information during my residence in the 
Colony ; but several considerations have induced me to refrain 
from touching even cursorily upon more than one or two of 
the above points. In the first place, each of these subjects 
would require, in order to be properly elucidated, at least a 
separate chapter, which would extend the book beyond the 
limits I had prescribed : secondly, the length of time that has 
elapsed since my personal observations were made, and the 



344 PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

coDtinoal state of change, both political and social, that has 
recently prevailed, would probably make my remarks in some 
respects appear obsolete : and, lastly, the abolition of slaverj, 
and the arrangements now in progress for adapting the local 
government to an improved state of things, have placed the 
whole frame of colonial society, and its local institutions and 
usages, in such a state of rapid transition, that observations, 
perfectly applicable even at the present moment, might be 
rendered in a few months altogether irrelevant. 

The progress and present state of Christian Missions in 
South Africa is a subject indeed to which these last remarks 
do not apply ; for it is one which in every aspect and attitude 
must ever be deeply interesting — ^interesting to those even 
who merely regard Christianity as a means of civilization- 
interesting above all to such as look seriously to the 
religious duty and the spiritual fruits of the conversion of 
the heathen. The historical details relating to the South 
African missions, from the time that George Schmidt first 
pitched his tent at Genadendal, and that Vanderkemp began 
his noble course, would constitute a narrative of exceeding 
interest. Much, it is true, has been already printed, partly 
in the transactions of the several missionary societies, and 
partly in books published by individuals ; but the £sicts of 
importance are scattered through a great variety of publica- 
tions, and often mixed up with extraneous or temporary 
matter. To reduce the whole into a well-digested and lucid 
narrative would be a valuable service to the cause of religion 
and civilization ; but it is a task which, were I even far more 
confident than I am of my competency for it, neither my 
leisure nor limits would at present permit me to undertake. 
I had intended to devote a chapter to the subject of missionary 
labours ; but, on looking more closely into it, I became con- 
vinced that a volume as large as the present would not afford 
more than sufficient space. 

Constrained, therefore, to limit myself to a passing notice, 
I would remark, that in the course of the last ten or twelve' 



PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 345 

years very extraordinary progress has been made in this 
quarter of the world by Protestant Missionaries of the 
Independent, Wesleyan, and Presbyterian denominations, in 
addition to the labours of the Moravians, who were first in 
possession of the field. 

In 1819^ when Dr. Philip arrived at the Cape, the insti- 
tutions of the London Missionary Society, which he was 
appointed to superintend, were in a most languishing and 
unprogressive state ; partly owing, no doubt, to want of a more 
energetic and systematic management on the part of the 
Society itself; but, in a h.r g^reater degree, to the continual 
discouragements and intolerable oppressions to which both 
the missionaries themselves, and their Hottentot disciples, 
were subjected by the Colonial Government and its local 
functionaries. For seven years longer, Dr. Philip had to 
struggle for the free toleration — I might almost say for the 
absolute existence of the Missionary Institutions committed 
to his charge. Every reader who wishes to form a just idea 
of the obstacles overcome, and the triumphs achieved, in this 
remote but important field of Christian philanthropy, ought 
to peruse Dr. Philip's 'Researches in South Africa ; ' a work 
which, though principally written to advocate a great imme* 
diate object — the emancipation of the Hottentot race — is 
replete with facts and reflections of deep and enduring interest* 
Without undervaluing the exertions of other missionaries of 
various denominations, whose services have been in an eminent 
degree meritorious and beneficial in those remote regions, 
I may justly call Dr. Philip the Las Casas of Southern Africa 
— end happier than Las Casas^ inasmuch as in promoting at 
once the political and spiritual redemption of the Native Race^ 
he has aided also in breaking the bonds of the Negro, and 
smoothed the way to the moral conquest of Africa. His 
indomitable determination and perseverance in standing up 
for the trampled Hottentots, and for those missionary asylums 
which the enmity of colonial tyranny had nearly extinguished, 
rendered him, as was naturally to be expected, obnoxious in 

q3 



846 PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

the very highest degree to Lord Charles Somerset, to tbe 
miserable politicians who formed his Lordship's secret conncil, 
and to the prejudiced provincial functionaries and white 
colonists generally. Nor has the persecution which was then 
80 eagerly, though unavailingly, directed against this able 
and excellent man ever since wanted zealous abettors among 
a few persons of influential station and narrow intellect, upon 
whom a portion of the late unhappy governor's mantle seems 
to have descended. But Dr. Philip can afford to regard with 
calm commiseration the hostility of such persons, as well as 
the incessant abuse of a yulgar and profligate pro -slavery 
press, which still continues to pursue him with unappeasable 
malignity. He is only enduring the same ordeal which the 
friends of the oppressed in all ages — which, in our own day, 
his illustrious friends, Wilberforce, and Clarkson, and Stephen, 
and Buxton, and Macaulay, have endured. The creatures 
that have raised such a clamour around him are but the puny 
though noisome insects of the hour. Let them buzz their 
little hour — ^it is but a brief one. The work of God, the 
labour of justice and mercy, mtist go on and prosper ; and is it 
not compensation enough for every contumely, to hare bad 
a share in that glorious work ? 

Since the emancipation of the Hottentot race, the progress 
of the London Society's missions among that class of people 
has been exceedingly encouraging. At the Kat River it has 
been pre-eminently so ; and to the labours of the missionaries 
there, and in an especial manner to those of Mr. Read, is 
unquestionably to be ascribed the astonishing success of an 
* experiment,' the result of which has far outstripped the 
hopes of the friends of the native race, while it has absolutely 
shut the mouths of their bitterest enemies. Yet so blindly 
prejudiced was the Colonial Government, even under the 
straight-forward, kind-hearted Sir Lowry Cole, that it was 
not for want of their zealous endeavours, direct and indirect, 
that the missionaries of the London Society, and Mr. Read in 
particular, were not driven from their labours at the Kat River. 



Fmocmsss of CHmisn^x insnoss. 547 



Beyond the eolonil KwJirin, ^e LoodoB Sodetr lias 
one prosperous maaam m Cafferioiid, mder the darge of m j 
friends Messrs. Browmlee wmd Tatzoe, and serenl of great 
interest and pf o grei&i ve impoitaBoe berond ^e northeni 
frontieT, in the conntiies of the BwdimeWj the Griqnas and 
the Bechnanas. 

The Weslejans hare been eminent^ sacscessfbl in Caffer- 
iand, where they hare nov statioiis and schoc^ estaUished 
from the Kdsi to the Umtata iiTers, among- the three great 
cognate tribes of the Amakosa, the Amatembn, and the 
Amaponda. For details, I mmst refer to the recent interesting 
work of Mr. Kaj, whidi I hare already so frequently qnoted 
as an andiority for historical &cts. It is ako through the 
meritorioos labonis of the Wesleyans, and especially of the 
Rev. Wm. Shaw, now in England, that the three chie& of 
the Gonnqnebi hare embraced Christianity, and that there 
is every prospect of that dan being speedily brought entirdy 
within the pale of cifilization. 

The Glasgow Sodety also hare sereial prosperous stations 
among the frontier Cafiers, where their labours hare been of 
great benefit; and the Morarians hare recently established 
one at Siloa among the Amatembu. Of the interesting 
institutions of the latter within the colony, I hare spoken 
elsewhere. (See abore, pp. 87 — 91). 

Next in importance to Missions has been the influence of 
the Press in South Africa during the last ten years. The 
South- African Adr^idser, suppressed by Lord Charles Somer- 
set in May, 1 824, was re-established in August, 1825^ by the 
return of Mr. Greig from England, with authority from the 
Home Government to recommence it upon the authority of a 
licence from the Goremor in Coundl. Its footing was thus 
ii^nproved, though still fru* from being secure. No adequate 
compensation for the losses and injuries sustained was allowed : 
but a compromise was made with Mr. Greig, and some facili- 
lities were afforded for his return to the Cape, on condition that 
he should not bring the case before Parliament. 

On the re-establisbment of the paper, I was invited to 



348 CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE 

resume inj share in its management along with Mr. Fairbaim ; 
but, being then at Glen-Lynden, I declined any other interest 
in it than that of a voluntary correspondent. I considered that 
one editor was fully sufficient for such a chaise, both as 
regarded labour and emolument ; and, besides, I then contem- 
plated returning to England as soon as I could arrange matters 
to effect that purpose 

From August, 1825, to March, 1827, this journal was con* 
ducted by Mr. Fairbaim upon the same principles o^ freedom, 
fairness B.nd forbearancey which we had laid down for our guid- 
ance when we first undertook its superintendence. This did 
not save it, however, from a second and a still more cruel blow 
than the first. On the 10th of March, 1827, it was once more 
suppressed by a direct order sent out by Lord Bathurst* Its 
alleged crime, on this occasion, consisted in inserting a state- 
ment relative to an act of oppression committed by Lord 
Charles Somerset. The article in question had been copied 
from the London Times newspaper, where it originally ap- 
peared ; and it was eventually proved by official documents to 
be not only a true, but an exceedingly mildy statement of the 
actual facts of the case. Nevertheless, Lord Charles Somerset, 
who was then in England, had influence enough with Earl 
Bathurst to obtain from him an imperative order to General 
Bourke to suppress, solely on this account, the South- African 
Advertiser, without admitting inquiry or remonstrance. 

Mr. Fairbairn had no resource but to come to England, in 
order to plead his cause at DowningStreet. Here he was detained 
until May, 1828, urging his claims for investigation,^ redress, 
and compensation, with successive Secretaries of State. At 
length, after many wearisome delays, Mr. Huskisson consented 
to restore the press ; and it was eventually placed by Sir George 
Murray upon the safe and sound footing of legal responsibility; 
but no compensation whatever was allowed for the enormous 
losses sustained by the proprietors through this unwarrantable 
act of Earl Bathurst, and from the ruinous delays in granting 
redress by his successors in office. 

Since the re -establishment of the press in 1828, upon the 



OF THE PERIODICAL PRESSc 349 

footing of legalised freedom, Mr. Fairbaim has continued his 
systematic course with an energy and efficacy of which, in such 
a community, it would be difficult to over-rate the importance* 
I express not merely my own opinions (which in regard to an 
early friend and intimate associate may reasonably be suspected 
of some partiality), when I assert that in regard to enlarged and 
statesman-like views, in general talent and grasp of mind, and 
in force and felicity of expression, no colonial journal now 
existing throughout the British dominions can bear any com- 
parison with that edited by Mr. Fairbaim. This opinion I 
have heard repeatedly expressed by the editors of some of the 
ablest journals in Europe ; and after having had myself a very 
extensive acquaintance with colonial newspapers during the last 
seven years, I am perfectly satisfied of its entire justice. But 
to Mr. Fairbaim a still higher merit belongs. With a coura- 
geous consistency, a patient perseverance, a lofty disregard of 
temporary interests, far more rare and infinitely more admirable 
than talents even of the highest order, he has devoted the 
powers of his mind and the purpose of his life —not to the 
exclusive benefit of any faction or class of men, still less ta 
aims of sordid ambition or selfish aggrandisement, — but to the 
unflinching advocacy of the great principles of Justice, of 
Freedom, of Christian Philanthropy, as paramount to all acci* 
dental or conventional distinctions of station, lineage, colour, 
or caste. He has kept steadily this high course in the midst 
of a slave-holding community, overflowing with all the preju* 
dices, and agitated with all the passions, inseparable perhaps 
from their unhappy position, — and upon whose opinion he was 
moreover entirely dependent for the means of subsistence. 
Under such circumstances he has not fared worse than pro- 
bably he himself anticipated. In 1828, such was his estima- 
tion among the wealthier class of that community, that in 
order to testify how highly they appreciated (as they expressed 
it) '^the able, consistent, and independent manner in which, 
without regard to personal sacrifices and losses, and notwith* 
standing the most powerful opposition, he )iad constantly advo- 



850 SERVICES OF MR. FAIRBAIRK. 

cated and protected the best interests of the colony/* and 
especially to eyince their gratitude for procuring them " the 
blessings of a Free Press," the inhabitants raised a liberal 
subscription, to present Mr. Fairbairn \nth a handsome piece 
of plate ; two-thirds nearly of those grateful subscribers being 
Cape Dutch slave-holders. 

But alas I the discussion of the Hottentot and the Slavery 
questions had then scarcely commenced in the Colony. Events 
soon rendered their discussion inevitable; and Mr. Fairbairn 
took that part in both which his principles and his position 
demanded. He advocated strenuously the unquestionable right 
of the Hottentot and the Slave to entire freedom ; but, as 
respects the latter class, he at the same time maintained with 
equal vigour the claims of the master to adequate compensation 
from a nation which had sanctioned the wrong ; demonstrating 
with irresistible force of argument the advantages to the com- 
munity which would result from granting both. This course, 
however, did not suit people who, listening only to their frantic 
prejudices and their still more frantic fears, clung to the totter- 
ing fabric of Slavery as if it had been the altar of their tutelar 
deity. These people, many of whom a few months before, in 
their exultation for the important boon obtained for themselves 
by his exertions, had so zealously subscribed to do honour to 
Mr. Fairbairn, now eagerly combined to avail themselves of the 
very privilege thus acquired, by setting on foot a pro-slavery 
newspaper to oppose, to calumniate, to vilify, and, if possible, 
to ruin the man to whom they owed such deep obligations. 
But such is public gratitude — such the venal and fickle thing 
called popular applause I Their new Journal, entitled De Zuid 
Afrikaarif was worthy of its vocation. It had been preceded 
by two or three ephemeral publications of the same stamp — 
the Chronicle, De Verzaamelar, &c. but all of them so utterly 
worthless and base, — or so full of slanderous and libellous 
blackguardism, that they had successively expired under the 
mere weight of public odium. The Zuid Afrika^in, scarcely 
less contemptible than the lowest of its predecessors in point 



SERVICES OF MR. FAIRBAIRN. 351 

of talent, has maintained its gn^ond solely by pandering to the 
vilest prejudices and by exciting the preposterous terrors of 
the slave-holders — by encouraging them to outrageous and 
seditious opposition to the Orders in Council and to the Sla- 
very Abolition Act — and by unceasing and unmeasured vitu- 
peration of Mr. Fairbaim, of Dr. Philip, and the other colonial 
friends of the coloured classes, and of the ' Saints and Philan- 
thropists' in England. And such has been its temporary 
success, zealously supported as it has been by a strong coalition 
of influential subscribers, that it appears to have done no trifling 
mischief in the Colony. Now however that the exciting ques- 
tions of Hottentot and Negro emancipation are finally set at 
rest, it is to be hoped, that common sense will speedily resume 
its natural sway, and that the pro-slavery champion of the 
Cape, only to be matched in mendacity and violence with 
the Cemeen of Mauritius, and the Courant of Jamaica, will 
speedily share the fate of the latter. 

Meanwhile, during all this clamour and controversy, Mr. 
Fairbaim has calmly and resolutely continued his course; 
seldom noticing his newspaper antagonists, except now and 
then to brush away with a resistless sweep of demonstration 
their cobwebs of sophistry and lies; |^ vigorously supporting 
the Government when it urgently required support (as it more 
than once did on most critical occasions) against the machina- 
tions of seditious demagogues and their foolish and fuming dis- 
ciples ; animadverting at other times with frank yet temperate 
boldness on the errors of the administration, constantly recom- 
mending an improved system of education ; pointing out to 
the colonists new sources of successful industry, or the best 
means of fully improving those already existing ; above all 
inculcating, with a vigilance that never slumbers and an energy 
that never slackens, the great principles of practical philosophy 
and practical philanthropy, to the diffusion of which in that 
remote and obscure corner of the globe he has devoted his 
remarkable talents. Nor has the seed thus sown altogether 
perished, though much of it may have fallen on stony places 



352 PERSONAL NARRATIVS* 

and among thorns, and although the enemy has been busily at 
work in sowing tares among the wheat. A goodly harvest of 
libera] principle^ of generous sentiment, of humane feeling, of 
Christian good-will, is already vigorously springing up and will 
(under God*s blessing) speedily begin to whiten in the long 
neglected fields of Southern Africa. And in preparing this 
glorious harvest, Mr. Fairbairn*s labours {unprofitable in the 
ordinary acceptation of the term as they may have proved to 
himself) have been eminently productive. 

« 

What remains to be related of my own personal narrative 
may be compressed into brief space. In September and Octo« 
ber 1825, 1 had a correspondence with the Commissioners of 
Inquiry on the subject of the complaints which I had preferred 
to Earl Bathurst against Lord Charles Somerset ; and with the 
mode in which they conducted the investigation I had no 
reason to be dissatisfied. Lord Bathurst*s decision upon my 
claims I did not learn till I arrived in England. 

To England many considerations, with which I need not 
trouble the reader, combined at that period to urge my return; 
and some circumstances occurred which, with the kind aid of 
friends in Cape Town, enabled me so to arrange matters as to 
accomplish that purpose. I accordingly bade farewell to my 
friends at Glen-Lynden, and on the 19th of December once 
more turned my face towards Algoa Bay. 

It was part of my plan to cross the eastern frontier on my 
route, and to spend a week or two in visiting the various 
Missionary stations, and some of the principal Chiefs in the 
Amakosa territory — an object I had long had in view. I tra- 
velled in an ox-wagon, accompanied by my wife, with our 
Hottentot servants, and three Caffers whom Mr. Brownlee 
had sent out to be our guides to his residence inCaffraria. Such 
was my perfect confidence in the friendly disposition of the 
natives that I desired no stronger escort. But just as we were 
about to cross the frontier I was forced to abandon my inten- 
tion, in consequence of one of those execrable commandoes ; 



CAFFER COMMANDO. 353 

Colonel Somerset, with 200 men of the Cape cavalry, and 
a party of boors, having made a sudden dash into Cafferland on 
the very day before that on which I meant to have crossed the 
border. 

Among other exploits of this commando, it attacked a kraal 
belonging to the chief Botma, hy mistake. Before the mistake 
was discovered, several women and children were shot by the 
boors, who fired indiscriminately among the naked and fright- 
ened natives ; and the Chief himself had a very narrow escape. 
Luckily, however, Botma was recognised by some of the 
officers who knew him personally ; the captured cattle were 
restored ; an apology was made for the blunder ; and the com- 
mando galloped on to another kraal. One of Gaika's villages 
was next attacked, which upon explanation (it is said) proved 
to be also a mistake. Amidst all this wretched blundering and 
murderous havoc, the real offender they were in pursuit of, one 
Neuka, a sort of CafPer Donald Bean Lean, escaped with his 
followers into the woods ; while the unoffending population, 
throughout the whole frontier, were, for the sake of a few 
stolen horses, thrown into a state of the most violent alarm 
and exasperation. Upwards of 500 cattle were, however, 
obtained, two-thirds of which were delivered over to the Field- 
Commandant Durant, to be distributed among the burghers of 
Bavian*s River and Bruintjeshoogte. In justice to the Com- 
mandant, I must add that I was assured by an officer who was 
present, and with whom I conversed at Graham's Town two 
days afterwards, that, on this occasion, the boors fired upon the 
unresisting Caffers, in breach of express orders to the contrary. 
But I could not learn that any one was punished, or even 
deprived of his claim to a share of the captured cattle, on 
account of this barbarous breach of discipline. Two Europeans 
who straggled from the commando on its return, a soldier and 
a trader, were slaughtered by the enraged Caffers. Had I hap- 
pened to have been a single day earlier on my route, thid 
might have been my own fate; and who could have very 
severely blamed the maltreated natives, if on some such occa- 



d54 AUTHOR EMBARKS FOR ENGLAND. 

sion they had massacred all the Europeans in their country ? 
But it speaks volumes for their unvindictive disposition,, that, 
during the inroads of all these barbarous commandoes, while 
much unmerited wrong has been inflicted, much innocent blopd 
•hed, and even some of their chiefs wantonly murdered (as in 
the case of Seko and a son of Enno's), yet not the hair of a 
missionary's, or a trader's, or a traveller's head has been touched 
by the savage Caffers, except in such cases as that above men- 
tioned, where the parties were connected with the invading 
commando. At the time that Seko and his men were mur* 
dered by the boors in 1830, there were some dozen mission- 
ariesy with their wives and children, and upwards of a hundred 
colonial traders, at the mercy of the Caffers ; yet not one of 
them was so much as placed in peril. Do such people deserve 
to be treated as savages f 

After once more visiting our friends on the route to Algoa- 
Bay, we proceeded by sea to Cape Town. There we spent 
six weeks arranging our concerns ; during which time I had 
some very satisfactory interviews with the Commissioners of 
Inquiry, and with General Bourke, who had succeeded Lord 
Charles Somerset in the administration of the colony. 

We embarked for England on the 16th of April, and 
arrived in London on the 7th of July, 1826. As an appro- 
priate sequel to my personal narrative, I may mention the 
result of my application to Earl Bathurst, for compensation 
on account of the persecution I had sustained from Lord 
Charles Somerset. My claims upon that ground were not 
admitted; but as a proof that my case was felt to be a 
strong one, and that nothing unfavourable could be alleged 
against my own conduct in the Colony, I subjoin the 
official letter which closed this correspondence with the 
Colonial Office, only adding that I lost about a thousand 
pounds at the Cape, and that I have never to this hoar 
received from Government one shilling of indemnity. 



PROGRESS OF THE GLEN-LTNDEN SETTLEMENT. 355 

« Downing Street, 6th Nov. 1826. 
" Sir, 
" I have received and laid before Earl Bathnrst your letter 
of the 23rd ult. and I am desired to acquaint you in reply that 
his Lordship is not disposed to reject your application alto* 
gether, although he sees little or no prospect at present of 
being of service to you. 

'* You are aware that it was exclusively for your conduct 
as a settler that his Lordship felt inclined to hold out to you 
any encouragement ; but as you have quitted the Cape, you 
have placed it out of his Lordship's power to assist your views 
in the manner that might have been done if you had remained 
in the colony. 

" I am, Sir, 

" Your most obedient servant, 

« R. W. Hay.' 
** Tlhomas Pringle^ Esq.* 



A few words in conclusion about our settlement of Glen- 
Lynden. Under the blessing of Providence, its prosperity has 
been steadily progressive. The friends whom I left there, 
though they have not escaped some occasional trials and disap- 
pointments, such as all men are exposed to in this uncertain 
world, have yet enjoyed a goodly share of * health, competence, 
and peace.' As regards the first of these blessings, one htX 
may suffice. Out of twenty-three souls who accompanied me 
to Glen-Lynden fourteen years ago, there had not, up to the 
24th of January last, occurred (so fi^ as I know) a single 
death — except one, namely, that of Mr. Peter Rennie, who 
was unfortunately killed by the bursting of a gun, in 1825. 
My father, at the patriarchal age of eighty years, enjoys the 
mild sunset of life in the midst of his children and grand- 
children; the latter of whom there is a large and rapidly 
increasing number, having been, with a few exceptions, all 
born in South Africa. The party have more than doubled 



356 PROGRESS OF TH£ OLEN-LYNDEN SETTLEMENT. 

their original nambers, by births alone, daring the last twelve 
years. Several additional families of relatives, and old 
acquaintance, have also lately joined them. 

Without having any pretensions to wealth, and with very 
little money among them, the Glen-Lynden settlers (with 
some exceptions) may be said to be in a thriving^ and on the 
whole in a very enviable condition. They are no longer 
molested by either predatory Bushmen or Caffers ; they 
have abundance of all that life requires for competence and 
for comfort ; and they have few causes of anxiety about the 
future. Some of them who have now acquired considerable 
flocks of merino sheep, have even a fair prospect of attaining 
by degrees to moderate wealth. They have excellent means 
of education for tkeir children; they have a well-selected 
su1)scription library of about four hundred volumes ; and, what 
is still more important, they have the public ordinances of 
religion duly and purely maintained among them : they have 
now a parish minister (the Rev. Alexander Welsh, a clergy- 
man of the Scottish Church) established in the valley of 
Glen-Lynden, with a decent stipend from the Government, 
augmented by their own voluntary contributions. 

On the whole, I have great cause to bless God, both as 
regards the prosperity of niy father's house, and in many 
respects also as regards my own career in life (whatever may 
be my future worldly fortunes), that His good Providence 
directed our emigrant course fourteen years ago to the wilds 
of Southern Africa. 



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